The $6.2 Million Dollar Banana

This week there was an article in the WSJ that stopped me in my tracks.

Someone Just Paid $6.2 Million for a Banana Duct-Taped to a Wall 

If you’re looking for signs that there is way too much liquidity in the system or that a few techno oligarchs have obscene amounts of wealth, look no further than this recent sale of “art.” The piece by Maurizio Cattelan was sold to the founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron. Sotheby's marketed the piece as “a pinnacle of artistic achievement on par with Andy Warhol’s soup cans.” A statement that is accurate whether you love or hate the piece. Of course, Sotheby's earns millions of dollars on the fee, a percentage of the sales price.

This sale is not alone in the category of outrageously priced art. In 2017, Salvatore Mundi sold for $ 450, almost one-half of a billion dollars. The crazy part of this story is that this is not a verified piece of art by the hands of Leonardo da Vinci. What if his hands never touched this piece, and it was done by an apprentice in his shop? Is it still a da Vinci? Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman doesn't care. “It's close enough” is his motto. 

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci (alone) or Leonardo with workshop participation

What gets me about the banana is that it's a real banana and real duct tape. Banana’s rot. This $6.2 million banana is rotting right now. The buyer said he would eat the banana and replace it with another banana and new duct tape. The art piece even comes with an 11-page instruction manual on orienting the new banana. I am kinda confused about how a new banana and new duct tape is the same art as the original. Perhaps the instruction installation manual is where the value lies. Counterfeiting art is challenging, but not this piece. This may be the most easily reproduced counterfeit in art history.

Is there really this much money sloshing through the economy? Yes, there is, and that's not good. It's also bad news that regardless of the election outcome, there is more on its way. Our national debt is not included in the top 20 (or more) most important political topics of the recent election. The really bad news is that there is no plan to reduce our budget deficit and national debt. Reckless spending fuels inflation. I don't think we are out of the woods.

Until next time, I'm off to Whole Foods to do some shopping.