(ANSA) - NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 19 - The banana stuck to the wall by Maurizio Cattelan enters the Guggenheim: "Comedian", the latest provocation by the Paduan conceptual artist who had made a sensation when it was exhibited in the pavilion of the Perrotin gallery at Art Basel Miami is was donated to the museum by an anonymous donor.
"We are grateful to have received a work that represents the artist's connection with the history of modern art," said Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong announcing the donation but without specifying, in an interview with the New York Times, a date for the presentation to public.
In Miami the banana had caused a sensation and the fair had had to calm the access of the public who had clogged the exhibition spaces to see the fruit on sale for 120 billion dollars that slowly withered.
During the exhibition another conceptual artist, David Datuna, elevated the circomediatico with an act of "perfomance art" by detaching the banana from the wall and eating it in front of the astonished eyes of those present.
In the confusion of the following days Perrotin had managed to sell three editions of the work, raising the price to 150 billion dollars for the last one.
Despite the interest of many collectors including the artist Damien Hirst, the gallery had chosen to keep two artist proofs for itself.
The owners of the work - and now the Guggenheim - are required to provide the bananas and tape to send the installation forward.
The six-figure sum paid is actually the price of the certificate of authenticity accompanied by an instruction manual that specifies the angle and height at which to post the fruit to the wall.
Cattelan has been working for some time with the Guggenheim which in 2012 dedicated a major retrospective to him.
After the exhibition, Cattelana had announced farewell to art but returned to the limelight in 2016 with "America", a perfectly functioning 18-karat gold toilet exhibited for weeks in a museum bathroom.
The work, valued at 5 million dollars, was then stolen last September while it was installed at Blenheim Palace in the bathroom once used by Winston Churchill.
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