A conceptual artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, “Comedian,” is just a fruit-stand banana taped on the wall. But 7 bidders were biting. It went to a crypto entrepreneur.

Maurizio Cattelan's "Comedian," a banana duct-taped to a wall, was sold at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday for $6.2 million.

In the Sotheby’s Auction House sale room — an intimate, carpeted seventh-floor auditorium on the Upper East Side — it’s not uncommon to see standing-room-only attendance. Or for the bidding crowd, many holding martinis or champagne glasses,

The buyer, China-born crypto entrepreneur and Justin Sun, spent $6.2 million on the piece by artist Maurizio Cattelan Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.

It was a banana with a back story. The spectacle on Wednesday evening, when a Sotheby’s auctioneer in Manhattan warned potential bidders not to let Maurizio Cattelan’s fruity artwork “slip away,” ended with a duct-taped banana selling for an astonishing $6.

Why it matters: "Comedian" sold for $6.2 million at auction this week — a ludicrous price for a banana, but a perfectly normal price for a major piece of contemporary art. The big picture: Comedy has always struggled with being taken seriously,

A viral banana perpendicularly duct-taped to a wall, which stirred many conversations in the art world, was sold to a cryptocurrency executive for $6.2 million (nearly P350 million) at an auction house in New York.