The winning bidder says he will eat the banana in coming days as part of a "unique artistic experience".
The taped banana - now perhaps one of the most expensive fruits ever sold - was actually bought earlier in the day for a mere $0.35, according to the New York Times.
Was commonplace in vanilla wow, you would see common items in the Auction House selling for silly prices - those were the players buying gold. Washing it via the auction house making it seem more legitimate.
I too have a nearly perfect replica of this piece. I'm selling each piece, which is part of an extremely limited run of 1000 pieces in total produced this week on demand, signed and sealed in a Tupperware container for freshness, for $2,990 each, worldwide shipping is just another $299.
It's really just one of a limited number of licenses which allows the owner of the license to showcase the work and legally regard it as an official work from the artist who first came up with the idea. Anyone can tape a banana to a wall, but only a few can do so and say that it's an 'original'.
I agree, it's very absurd, and that's part of the point. It's also obvious too that someone gives a shit since they're willing to shell out millions of dollars for it. And as far as taping another piece of fruit to the wall, it unlikely to do well because with modern and conceptual art, it's all about who came up with the idea first.