No no no
The owner is expected to replace the banana... since it will eventually go rotten. The 120k were paid for the concept of owning it!!!
"All is not lost for the buyer, who, let’s face it, was going to have to deal with the demise of the banana at some point. The work apparently comes with a certificate of authenticity, and owners can replace the banana. “[Datuna] did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea,” Lucien Terras, a director at the gallery, told the Miami Herald"
Last edited by d00mGuArD; 2019-12-09 at 06:52 PM.
and the geek shall inherit the earth
I'm sorry but that is bullshit.
You can make any argument you want, but that doesn't mean the law has to give them any thought.
Laws are "black and white" - that's what they are there for. The grey area does appear whenever the law isn't laid out well enough (yet)
If the U.S. is like that, (and I really doubt that) then you basically do not have any laws.
Last edited by KrayZ33; 2019-12-09 at 06:01 PM.
In this case the perishable nature of the banana prevents the art object from having long term value, so regardless of the purchase price, the piece is understood to only have temporary value.
Pretty much any court would rule it has the value of a banana and 4 inches of duct tape. However additional damages could be assessed if it caused a reduction in visitors to the museum, or other damages secondary to the value of the art. There could also be criminal vandalism charges filed as well.
As far as the purchase price of the item, you can make an argument for the $120k price tag as being "Reasonable" when you look at it in terms of the attention it has generated. By putting such an absurd price on a banana, it generated a great deal of media attention, and thus prestige for the buyer. It is the same sort of flex when they sell Tuna for $30,000 a pound. However like the Tuna, its value wouldn't hold up in court, because it becomes worthless in a few days anyway.
It was the artist's name attached to it that sold it, not the piece itself. It's really how modern art works. Some regular jack off can't nail a banana to a wall and ask for $120,000.