Cattelan’s banana sold for 6 million, Sgarbi’s reaction

“What happened last night in New York on Cattelan’s banana demonstrates that the work of art is no longer a safe haven but an escape asset. It is no longer something that is revalued as a property but something that belongs to our thought. It is a path that somehow removes matter from the work and makes it become pure thought, a mental thing”. This is how Vittorio Sgarbi comments to Adnkronos on the record set by Maurizio Cattelan’s most famous and discussed work, “Comedian” (a banana stuck to the wall with adhesive tape), sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York for 6.2 million of dollars.

“This new record legitimizes the thought that Cattelan moves in terms different from those of the figurative tradition conceived up to now. And this is the novelty: indicating a new path to creativity, which is precisely a spiritual fact”, adds Sgarbi.