That Dumbass Banana Duct Taped To A Wall Has Been Donated By "Anonymous" To The Guggenheim In NYC After $150,000 Appraisal

(insider)--It was the banana that captivated everyone's attention, and now it'll be on display — duct tape included — at a famous New York City museum. 

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's piece "Comedian" — better known as the banana taped to a wall — is now in the hands of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. 

The Guggenheim received the work of art — which sold for more than $100,000 at Art Basel Miami in December 2019 — from an anonymous donation, according to The New York Times.

The banana received so much attention that the festival eventually took it down to try and control the crowds. 

But it was still a major success. Two editions of Cattelan's piece sold for $120,000, while another buyer purchased a third edition for $150,000. 

"It appealed to me for its absurdity and the effect on the public," Sarah Andelman, one of the buyers, told The Times. "I observed all the Basel visitors taking their selfie and I thought that was such a reflection of our time."

I hope that there is no afterlife because I bet that the artists like Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Gauguin who also have their works in the Guggenheim would want to burn Frank Lloyd Wright's building to the fucking ground if they knew they had to share the space with a fucking banana taped to a wall which is called art in the same sense that their masterpieces are. And look, I don't know dick about art. In fact I only know one thing for certain. I know that it is a fucking RACKET. Someone buying this for 100,000 and then donating it as an art installation for a value of $150,000 is grand theft taxes. We talked about this at length on Dogwalk back in May

Basically how it works is that these assholes buy something fucking worthless, like a banana taped to a wall for example, and pay $100,000 for it knowing full well that it is worthless. Then, if they have a windfall of profits in a particular year where they'd have to pay taxes out the ass on said profits they simply get the work appraised by friendly art appraisers for a substantially higher price than they paid and donate it to a museum. Then that person gets to write-off the value of the bullshit art on their taxes against their income and save themselves real dollars from the government because they were soooooooo generous and charitable when they sent their prized possession of shit to the Guggenheim or some other museum. It's insanity that the world just allows a few people to say what a banana on a wall costs and then have actual financial incentives to lie about the value. People seem to hate the 1% for finding tax shelters, but this one should be atop the rage meter. It's blatant theft of public good and also casts a negative light on the art community in general. Or at least it should and everyone just looks the other way because they don't want to feel stupid for "not getting it" or "not understanding art" so people just pretend as the millionaires who donate the works walk out the back of the building with a bag full of cash.

Also...FUCK this person for being anonymous. It's fake philanthropy and when they go to file their taxes it'll be faux anonymity