A New York fruit vendor named Shah Alam sold a banana for 25 cents. That same banana, duct-taped to a wall, sold at Sotheby’s for $6.2 million, and the buyer ate it at a press conference in Hong Kong. This episode unpacks Maurizio Cattelan’s 2019 artwork Comedian, from its debut at Art Basel Miami to its journey through viral memes, federal court, and the secondary art market, and what it reveals about how value is constructed.

We explain why the physical banana is irrelevant and the certificate of authenticity is the real artwork, following the conceptual lineage back to Marcel Duchamp and Cattelan’s own history of duct-taping his art dealer to a wall. We cover David Datuna eating the banana at the fair, the hungry art student in Seoul, Damien Hirst being turned away, the Popeyes and Burger King spoofs, Joe Morford’s failed copyright lawsuit, and Justin Sun’s comparison of the piece to decentralized digital assets.

• The installation rules that require the fruit to hang 1.6 meters above the floor and be replaced when it bruises
• Why the gallery simply re-taped a new banana after the first one was eaten and never pressed charges
• How crowds seeking selfies became a safety hazard that forced the piece off the wall before the fair ended
• The judge’s reasoning that you cannot copyright the idea of taping a banana to a wall
• Why one edition now floats around the globe aboard the residential cruise ship MS The World