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The creation of the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, a banana attached to a wall with an adhesive tape, has sold for about 108,000 euros ($ 120,000) after being exhibited this week at the Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition, considered one of the largest art festivals in the world with artistic events throughout the city.
The work "offers a vision of how we assign value and what kind of objects we value, " according to the Perrotin gallery, which shows the assembly of the object, according to The Art Newpaper .
Cattelan developed the idea a year ago when he started thinking about creating a banana-shaped sculpture. "He made several models: first in resin, then in bronze and in painted bronze before returning to the initial idea of a real banana," says the aforementioned gallery.
He added that the fruit displayed was "locally sourced" from a grocery store in Miami. The work, an edition of three copies with two artist's proofs, is called Comedian and is priced at $ 120,000.
However, collectors interested in the work should keep in mind that there are no precise instructions for the long-term care of the work.
"After a 15-year hiatus, Maurizio has returned to the international art fair, and we are fortunate to be able to collaborate with him," an Art Basel Miami Beach spokeswoman told Sky News .
"Banana is many things, a symbol of world trade, a double witty meaning and a classic device for humor," he continued. "Maurizio takes mundane objects and transforms them into vehicles of pleasure and criticism."
Before this creation, the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created in 2016 a fully functional 18-carat solid gold toilet, called America , which was first exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and could be used by visitors. Subsequently, the New York museum offered the unique piece to the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
Three years later, a 66-year-old man was arrested in connection with the removal of the golden toilet from Blenheim Palace, the mansion in the English countryside where former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was born, which was valued at 1.12 million euros and was part of an exhibition of the artist. The theft caused a major flood since it was connected to the pipes and was used by the public.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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