Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian,” which famously sold for $120,000 at Art Basel Miami in 2019, was as much a cultural flashpoint as it was a conceptual artwork. With a banana duct-taped to a wall, Cattelan provoked art enthusiasts and skeptics to reconsider the nature of art and value. Five years later, Sotheby’s is auctioning one of the artwork’s three editions, with estimates reaching $1.5 million. This second wave of public fascination underscores the work’s ongoing relevance and the art world’s willingness to embrace provocation.

Critics have likened “Comedian” to earlier conceptual works, such as Marcel Duchamp’s urinal, which challenged the art establishment by questioning value and authenticity. Cattelan’s work continues this lineage with a knowing wink, blurring the boundaries between art, commodity, and spectacle. This was illustrated vividly when performance artist David Datuna famously consumed the banana, arguing that his act was also art—a statement on the impermanence and commodification of art.

The high-profile sale at Sotheby’s raises further questions about art as an investment. Buyers receive a simple kit—tape, a banana, and instructions—reaffirming that “Comedian” is not the physical object but a certificate legitimizing the concept. This structure transforms the ephemeral into an economic asset, and the market’s embrace of “Comedian” reveals the interplay between public spectacle and financial speculation in contemporary art.

As the work embarks on a global tour, with plans to be shown in major cities from Tokyo to Los Angeles, “Comedian” reclaims the spotlight. Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, David Galperin, heralds it as a “defiant work of pure genius,” positing the auction as a stage for the public to “decide its true value.” Whether absurd or profound, Cattelan’s piece holds up a mirror to the art world, reflecting our collective fascination with the price—and the meaning—of art.