New York fruit vendor selling bananas was devastated after they went viral. Art valued at $6.2 million

It went like crazy.

The New York fruit seller who sold an ordinary banana taped to a gallery wall at Sotheby’s for a whopping $6.2 million was devastated to learn he had been made the butt of the joke – but the New Yorkers and art buyers are now lining up to support him.

Shah Alam, a 74-year-old fruit seller who works for $12 an hour at a street stand outside Sotheby’s on the Upper East Side, sold the piece of fruit that would become part of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s absurd work “Comedian,” the reported New York Times on Thursday.

The conceptual piece, which first premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, offers a commentary on the ridiculousness of the art world, whose meaning is tied to the money and fans it attracts. It was sold last week by Sotheby’s on behalf of an anonymous collector.

“In this way, the work becomes self-reflexive: the higher the price, the more it reinforces its original concept,” Cattelan wrote to the Times.

Last week that value rose to millions at auction. The opening bid started at $800,000 and within five minutes, the packaged banana – whose fruit needs to be refreshed once or twice a week – was sold to a Chinese man for $5.2 million, plus over $1 million in auction house fees Cryptocurrency company founder sold.

Alam, a nearly blind Bangladeshi immigrant who doesn’t speak much English, had no idea his 35-cent banana was being resold at the eye-popping price until a Times reporter found him this week and told him.

The new information – confirmed by a Sotheby’s spokesman – brought tears to his eyes, the Times said.

“I am a poor man,” Alam told the reporter in a broken voice. “I’ve never had so much money; I’ve never seen so much money.”

The fruit seller moved to the United States in 2007 from Dhaka, where he was a civil servant, to be near his adult daughter, who lives on Long Island, the outlet reported.

A widower, Alam said he pays $500 a month to live with five other men in a basement apartment in the Parkchester section of the Bronx. He works 12 hours a day, four days a week, regardless of the weather, at the same fruit stand on York Avenue and East 72nd Street. He makes $12 an hour — or $576 a week, he told the Times.

He didn’t understand the concept behind the “comedian” but felt the joke was on him.

“Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?” he asked the Times reporter. “Don’t you know what a banana is?”

Cattelan, who received no compensation for the Sotheby’s sale, said he felt sorry for the seller but did not offer him any help.

“The banana seller’s reaction moves me deeply and underscores how art can have an impact in unexpected and profound ways,” he told the Times by email. “However, art does not inherently solve problems – if it did, it would be politics.”

Meanwhile, Justin Sun, the new owner of “Comedian,” whose net worth is estimated at at least $1.4 billion, offered to pay Alam for more yellow fruit.

“To thank Mr. Shah Alam, I decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand in New York’s Upper East Side.” Sun tweeted on Thursday afternoon. “These bananas will be distributed free of charge worldwide through his stand.”

Sun, who lives in China, did not say how he plans to purchase and distribute the bananas, but said a valid ID would be required to receive a free banana.

It’s also unclear whether Alam’s tiny neighborhood fruit stand has enough supplies for such a large purchase.

“Mr. “Alam’s contribution to this extraordinary work of art is indispensable as it highlights the limitless possibilities and value hidden in everyday life,” Sun added. “I hope that this initiative brings his story to a wider audience, and I look forward to visiting his fruit stand in person one day to once again express my gratitude.”

Alam’s tragic story didn’t just affect the billionaire.

An anonymous New Yorker started a GoFundMe for the fruit seller, promising to match the first $5,000 dollar for dollar.

“Do we really want to live in a city where we can shake off a street vendor reduced to tears at being the butt of a joke about what he considers an obscene amount of wealth, and where we can celebrate a smartass for doing so? that he found out? How can you make $6 million with this joke? If this complete and gross indifference is not what torments us, then what is?” the fundraiser, who only listed his initials “JS,” wrote in the GoFundMe description.

As of Thursday evening, the campaign had raised more than $8,600.

“I’m going to go to the fruit stand myself next week (after Thanksgiving) and make a video of myself handing him the money,” JS wrote. “If I don’t find him, GoFundMe will give your money back.”