Banana taped to wall proves a-peeling offer to art world as it sells for more than £90,000
A banana taped to a wall has sold for more than £90,000 at an art show in Miami.
'Comedian' by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has been "the talk of the town" after it was displayed at the Art Basel Miami Beach show.
There are reportedly three versions of the installation, two of which have been picked up for $120,000 (£91,000) each. A third is believed to be under offer from a museum.
The work comes with a certificate to prove it is authentic.
Owners of the work replace the banana as they see fit, although there are no instructions on how to do so.
It is not clear if the banana comes with replacement tape.
The idea took a year for the artist to arrive at.
Originally he cast the fruit in materials including bronze and resin in an attempt to find inspiration for a sculpture.
He told ArtNet: "Wherever I was travelling I had this banana on the wall. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it.
"In the end, one day I woke up and I said ‘the banana is supposed to be a banana'."
The artist and owner of the Perrotin Gallery, where the piece is being displayed, worked together to arrive at the three-figure price tag in a bid to "strike a balance between an insignificant number that would trivialise the work, and an outlandish one that would be completely ridiculous".
An Instagram post from the gallery reads: "This piece offers insight into how we assign worth and what kind of objects we value."
The owner of a namesake gallery, Emmanuel Perrotin, said the fruit is "a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humour".
The artist, Maurizio Cattelan, is perhaps best known for creating a gold toilet, which was stolen from Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire earlier this year.