Banana + Duct Tape = Magic!
An artwork called ‘Comedian’ created by an Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, which was recently sold for a whopping $121,000 (approximately Rs. 86.07 lakhs), has become the talk of the town.
The artwork, to everyone’s surprise, was a mere banana held against the wall using a duct tape. The rather puzzling piece of art being sold for such a massive amount, left the netizens scratching their heads in amazement. Things took a rather dramatic turn when performance artist David Datuna ended up taking the banana off the wall and eating it while the artwork was on display at an international gallery, Perrotin, at Art Basel in Miami.
However, the banana-duct tape ensemble is not the only bizarre piece of artwork that has made a massive amount of money. Several ridiculous and weird pieces of artwork have been sold for millions of dollars in the last decade. Here are some of them.
No More Red Flags
It is a popular saying that when you look at the world through rose-tinted glasses, you might end up missing out on some red flags. Gerhard Richter, a German visual artist, created a unique piece of artwork, which was essentially a mirror, painted in red.
In October 2012, Richter’s Abstraktes Bild set an auction record price for a painting by a living artist at £21m ($34m, approximately Rs, 3.4 crores). This was exceeded in May 2013 when his 1968 piece Domplatz, Mailand (Cathedral square, Milan) sold for $37.1 million (£24.4 million, approximately Rs. 2.44 crores) in New York.
Seems like Richter wanted to paint the town red, after all!
Gotta Catch ‘Em All!
Pokemon is the global phenomenon that has taken the world by storm and back in the previous decade, several people were fond of collecting Pokemon cards and tazos. However, there was one sought-after, coveted card which was sold at an auction for $224,500 (approximately Rs. 1.59 crores) according to gaming news site, Kotaku.
What’s so special about the card, you ask? The card was special because it was handed out as a prize in the competitions in the year 1998. Only 39 of these cards were made, making them very rare.
Home, Sweet Home?
Being away from home for long durations can be quite a daunting feeling. To cure us of overpowering feelings of homesickness, British artist Tracey Emin came up with an artwork called ‘My Bed’ in 1998.
‘My Bed’, consisted of Emin’s bed full of soiled bedsheets stained with bodily secretions, condoms, knickers with menstrual blood stains and everyday objects like slippers. ‘My Bed’ was bought by Charles Saatchi for £150,000 (approximately Rs. 1.4 crore) and displayed as part of the first exhibition when the Saatchi Gallery opened its new premises at County Hall, London.
Art Or Feces?
If you feel bizarre pieces of Modern Art were a rarity in the 20th Century, you’re wrong. In 1961, an Italian artist Piero Manzoni, created a piece of art that raised several eyebrows. Called, ‘Artist’s Shit’, the artwork by Manzoni consists of 90 tin cans filled with feces.
Each can weighs around 30 grams. The most bizarre and confusing fact about ‘Artist’s Shit’, is that a single tin of the ‘artwork’ was sold for €124,000 (approximately Rs. 97.57 lakhs) on Sotheby, one of the largest brokers of fine and decorative art on May 23, 2007.
Another can was sold in October 2008 for £97,250 (approximately Rs. 91.12 lakhs). Needless to say, the buyers spent a humongous amount on..err…a piece of crap.
