World News

22060 readers

191 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Duct-taped banana sells for more than $6 million at auction (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 18 hours ago by SheepWolf@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A banana duct-taped to a white wall — or an acclaimed piece of art, depending how you look at it — sold at a Sotheby's auction for $6.24 million Wednesday.

Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian" is simply a banana stuck to the wall with a strip of silver duct tape exactly 160 centimeters from the floor.

The artwork debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019 and was initially estimated to sell for $1.5 million, according to Sotheby's.

Art Basel quickly had to take the banana off the wall because of the crowds it drew, as it was prompting concern for the other featured artworks, art critic Nancy Durrant said in a Sotheby's video about the piece of art.

It was the first art fair Cattelan was included in for 15 years, and it was the "announcement as a new original work by Maurizio Cattelan that captured the world's attention immediately," said David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art for the Americas.

At one point, someone even took the banana off the wall and ate it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 13 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You’re not paying for the original banana (well, you are, but you’ll have to replace it with a banana of your own sourcing every few days), and presumably the duct tape is ordinary as well, and there’s no special secret trick to correctly arranging it, so anyone reading this could perfectly recreate the artwork at home. You’re paying for the receipt certifying you to be the one person who paid for the concept. In other words, it’s like a NFT, only more ecologically sound.

[–] Biggles@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

It says at the end of the article someone took the original banana off the wall and ate it.

[–] bloup@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 12 hours ago

do you ever think about how the original paint that Da Vinci used to paint the Last Supper faded away hundreds of years ago?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Ethereum, the blockchain that the vast majority of NFTs are based on, switched to proof-of-stake over two years ago. It doesn't use significant amounts of energy any more. So there isn't even the "more ecologically sound" distinction here.

[–] Cassa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Still an NFT though, a insignificant, worthless bit of code pointing to a "thing" you "own"

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 7 hours ago

Yes, so? All I was disputing was the issue of whether they're "ecologically sound." They're fine now, they don't consume massive amounts of energy. Use them or ignore them as you wish.

[–] LostXOR@fedia.io 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

There's still the cost associated with having your transaction stored forever on the blockchain across millions(?) of devices, but it's only a few dozen bytes so the impact isn't much.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 5 points 14 hours ago

Indeed. And there's a future update for Ethereum being worked on to implement a "state expiry" system, which means data wouldn't be stored forever unless you actually paid for it to be. I've been quite impressed with Ethereum's continued development over the years, in contrast to Bitcoin which basically ossified.