A 35-cent banana was sold for $6.2mn. The artist didn't even offer to help the poor vendor

The vendor who sold the banana that was auctioned off as part of the viral artwork of the fruit duct-taped to a wall is now in utter shock. The strange art piece by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan titled “Comedian", was sold by Sotheby’s for a whopping $6.2 million. The New York Times reported that the banana was sold by Shah Alam, a 74-year-old fruit seller. 

Alam works outside Sotheby’s on the Upper East Side for $12 an hour, the Times reported. He was not aware that a piece of fruit he sold for 35 cents was sold for millions of dollars. When a reporter later told him what had happened to the banana, Alam burst into tears. 

The satirical conceptual piece first debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. It offers a commentary on how ridiculous the art world is where the meaning of a piece is tied to the money it attracts. Sotheby’s sold the banana artwork earlier this month to Justin Sun, the Chinese founder of a cryptocurrency platform, as per NYT.

The bid started at $800,000 and it was sold off within five minutes for $5.2 million plus over $1 million in auction-house fees. The piece requires the banana to be refreshed once or twice a week.

Alam, a nearly blind Bangladeshi immigrant, is shattered to learn about the fate of the banana. His story is now attracting several well-known figures who have come forward to help him.

Also Read: Ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz up for auction

“I am a poor man,” Alam told the reporter, his voice breaking. “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.”

Alam moved to the US in 2007 to be with his daughter who lives on Long Island. He is a widower and pays $500 every month as rent for a basement apartment in the Bronx which he shares with five other men.

He told the NYT that he works four days a week for 12 hours every day on York Avenue and East 72nd Street and makes $12 an hour, or $576 a week.

What is "Comedian"?

"Comedian" was a satire about the art world which Alam fails to understand. All he understands is that someone bought a piece of banana at his expense. “Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?” he asked the Times reporter. “Do they not know what a banana is?”

Cattelan didn't offer to help vendor, but Sun did

When Cattelan was informed about the seller, he told NYT via email that the reaction of the banana vendor moved him deeply, but "art, by its nature, does not solve problems". While he was not paid for the sale by Sotheby's, Cattelan did not offer to help the vendor either.

Meanwhile, Justin Sun, who bought the “Comedian” offered more money to Alam.

“To thank Mr. Shah Alam, I’ve decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand in New York’s Upper East Side,” Sun tweeted Thursday afternoon. “These bananas will be distributed free worldwide through his stand.” He did not say how he plans on doing this.

Besides the billionaire, an anonymous New Yorker came to Alam's help and launched a GoFundMe. The person, described only with the initials “JS” on the page, promised to match the first $5,000 raised dollar-for-dollar. It had raised $8,600 by Thursday night.