Last week, a duct-taped banana sold for $6.2 million, including Sotheby New York's auction fees. The New York Times reports that it tracked down the fruit vendor who sold it for 35 cents, and he began to cry when he he was told the sale price. "I am a poor man," said 74-year-old Shah Alam, who earns $12 an hour during 12-hour shifts at a fruit stand outside the Manhattan auction house. "I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money." Sotheby's confirmed to the Times that the banana was bought from Alam's cart on the day of the sale.
Alam, a widower who moved to the US from Bangladesh in 2007 to be near his daughter, said he shares a Bronx basement apartment with five other men. "Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?" Alam asked. "Do they not know what a banana is?" He told the Times that he has never been inside Sotheby's—and since he needs cataract surgery, which is scheduled for January, he wouldn't be able to see the art clearly anyway.
The duct-taped banana was one of three editions of "The Collector" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. "The reaction of the banana vendor moves me deeply, underscoring how art can resonate in unexpected and profound ways," he told the Times. "However, art, by its nature, does not solve problems—if it did, it would be politics." Like Alam, he didn't make any money from the sale, which was on behalf of a private collector. The artwork, which came with instructions on replacing the banana, was bought by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who plans to eat it on Friday. (More art stories.)
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