It turned into a banana.
A New York City fruit vendor who sold an ordinary banana duct-taped to a gallery wall at Sotheby's for a whopping $6.2 million was devastated when he learned he had become the butt of a joke, but with New Yorkers… Shocked art buyers are now lining up to support him.
Shah Alam, 74, a $12-an-hour fruit vendor outside Sotheby's on the Upper East Side, sold fruit that would become part of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's absurdist work “The Comedian.'' The New York Times reported Thursday.
This conceptual work, which premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, offers a commentary on the absurdity of the art world, and its meaning is tied to the money and fans that art attracts. . It was sold by Sotheby's on behalf of an anonymous collector last week.
“In that way, the work becomes introspective. The higher the price, the more the original concept is reinforced,” Cattelan wrote in the Times.
Last week, that meaning swelled to millions of dollars at auction. Initial bidding started at $800,000, and a banana taped together in less than five minutes (requiring the fruit to be replaced once or twice a week) sold for $5.2 million, plus more than $1 million in auction house fees, to China's virtual It was sold to the founder of a currency company.
Alam, a nearly blind Bangladeshi immigrant who speaks little English, had no idea his 35-cent bananas were being resold for eye-popping prices until a Times reporter spotted him this week. There wasn't.
Tears came to his eyes when he heard the new information confirmed by a Sotheby's spokesperson, the Times reported.
“I'm a poor person,” Alam told reporters, his voice breaking. “I've never had this much money. I've never seen money like this.”
The fruit vendor moved to the United States from Dhaka, where he was a government employee, in 2007 to be closer to his adult daughter, who lives on Long Island, the paper said.
Alam, a widower, said she pays $500 a month to live in a basement apartment with five other men in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. He works 12 hours a day, four days a week, regardless of the weather, at the same fruit stand on York Avenue and East 72nd Street. He told the Times that he earns $12 an hour, or $576 a week.
Although he did not understand the concept behind “Comedian”, he felt that the jokes were made at his expense.
“Who are the people who bought it?” he asked a Times reporter. “Don't they know what a banana is?”
Cattelan, who received no compensation for the Sotheby's sale, said he sympathized with the seller but offered no assistance.
“The Banana Seller's reaction deeply moves me and highlights how art can resonate in unexpected and profound ways,” he told the Times in an email. “But art, by its very nature, doesn't solve problems. If it did, it would be politics.”
Meanwhile, the Comedian's new owner, Justin Sun, whose net worth is estimated to be at least $1.4 billion, offered to pay Alam extra money for the yellow fruit.
“As a token of our gratitude to Mr. Shah Alam, we decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand on New York's Upper East Side.” The Sun tweeted Thursday afternoon.. “These bananas will be distributed for free around the world through his stand.”
AFP (via Getty Images)
Sun, who lives in China, declined to say how he plans to buy and distribute the bananas, but said a valid ID will be required to receive the free bananas.
It's also unclear whether the small fruit shop in Alam's neighborhood has enough supply to make such a large purchase.
“Mr. Aram's contribution to this extraordinary work of art is essential, highlighting the infinite possibilities and value hidden in everyday life,” added Sun. “We hope this initiative will help tell his story to a wider audience, and we look forward to visiting his fruit stand in person one day to express our gratitude again.”
Aram's tragic story didn't just move the billionaire.
An anonymous New Yorker started a GoFundMe for the fruit vendor and pledged to match the first $5,000 raised.
“We really need a city where we can celebrate smart people who get something while ignoring street vendors who are moved to tears by the fact that they've been made the butt of an obscene wealth joke.” “Do I want to live there?'' How do I make $6 million with that joke? If this utter apathy isn't troubling us, then what is troubling us? ” the fundraiser, who listed only the initials “JS,” wrote in the GoFundMe description.
The campaign had raised more than $8,600 by Thursday night.
“Next week (after Thanksgiving) I will walk to the fruit store myself and videotape myself handing him the money,” JS wrote. “If we can’t find him, GoFundMe will give you your money back.”
