Sotheby’s Maruzio David Galperin On the Market for Maurizio Cattelan
It's auction week in New York City, the twice-annual bonanza when this fair city plays host to the most expensive art auctions in the world. If you know just one lot from this week's sales, it's probably Maurizio Cattelan's (2019), the famous piece in which the puckish sculptor duct-taped a banana to the wall at Art Basel Miami Beach. Someone who definitely understood the joke purchased that piece and is selling it at Sotheby's this week , where it is expected to fetch around $1 million. We caught up with David Galperin , Sotheby's head of contemporary art, to hear more about the upcoming sale.
Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to ourIt's no coincidence that Cattelan chose to debut at an art fair. The work's power is to redefine our upheld beliefs of what art can be, and 's auction debut is a critical next phase in the story of this work.
One edition of this work has landed at the Guggenheim. What kinds of collectors would be in the market for a work like this?
I can see the work being of interest to everyone from institutions to collectors of 20th- and 21st-century art. Equally, I can see this work appealing to a first-time collector captivated by its radical subversion of the norm.
For the viewers at home, can we be explicit about what the buyer of Comedian will receive? It's just the right to reproduce the work, right? Is there, for example, a contract?
This is a conceptual artwork. The buyer will receive a certificate of authenticity, which includes instructions, as well as one banana and a roll of duct tape.
How have visitors been able to see this work ahead of the sale? What steps are you taking to prevent them from eating it? And why do you think this piece has so resonated with the public?
has been on a global world tour since we first unveiled the work as a highlight of our upcoming The Now and Contemporary Evening auction. Our exhibitions are free and open to the public, and we're so thrilled to see fans around the world enjoy seeing the work up close. It's now on view in our York Avenue galleries, open every day through to the sale on 20 November.
I think the piece has resonated with the public in its universality. Whatever the response, it is an artwork that provokes thought, debate, and imagination—something we've been excited to witness in our galleries throughout the exhibitions.
