Make a Stan for Timeless Art

One museum's fossil can be an art collector's installation

In December 2019, a real banana duct-taped to a wall, billed as a work called comedian, by the Italian satirical artist Maurizio Cattelan fetched $120,000 at a prestigious art show in Miami. Not long after, another identical work by the same artist was also sold for the same amount.Both buyers were French and they were connoisseurs, not consumers, presumably. Not only did the perishable nature of the art not affect its saleability— a 'performance artist' peeled the banana off the wall and ate it — the work was declared the 'unicorn of the art world'. If that banana symbolised the evenescence of an artistic idea, its timelessness will surely be underlined by the sale of a67 million-year-old composition of bones that is the highlight of Christie's Evening sale of 20the century Art in October in New York.

The 'work' has been named Tyrannosaurus Rex(by paleontologists) and Stan (by its finders), and the 'artist' remains unknown. But as only 50 'original' T Rex 'works' have been found so for art collectors, if not museums. Moreover, while that duct-taped banana had only one certified 'copy'– although creating fake versions is not difficult - 60 official replicas of Stan are on display in museums around the world. He is certainly a celebrity fossil.

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