By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-29 21:00:53 | Updated at 2024-11-29 23:36:02
2 hours ago
The Upper East Side fruit vendor who sold a $6.2 million banana for pennies is still feeling rotten over his end of the deal.
Shah Alam, 74, recently learned that a piece of his produce was used in Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s piece titled “Comedian” — taped to a gallery wall and sold at auction last week for the eye-popping price of $5.2 million plus more than $1 million in auction-house fees.
“I got 35 cents. The other guy got $6 million,” Alam told The Post Friday as he manned his fruit cart outside Sotheby’s auction house on East 72nd Street and York Avenue.
“It is beyond my imagination,” he said.
The nearly-blind Bangladeshi immigrant, who speaks little English, said he felt gutted over the sale, which he was informed about by a New York Times reporter this week.
Sotheby’s, which auctioned off the piece on behalf of an anonymous collector, confirmed that the banana used in the work came from Alam’s cart, the Times reported.
Alam, who makes $12 an hour and works 12-hour days at the stand, tearfully told The Times: “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.”
Chinese cryptocurrency company founder Justin Sun — the new owner of “Comedian” — offered to buy 100,000 bananas from Alam in a post on X Thursday night.
“To thank Mr. Shah Alam, I’ve decided to buy 100,000 bananas from his stand in New York’s Upper East Side. These bananas will be distributed free worldwide through his stand. Show a valid ID to claim one banana, while supplies last,” wrote Sun, whose net worth is estimated to be at least $1.4 billion.
Sun — who gobbled up the banana after buying it — did not detail how he would accomplish his promise or whether Alam’s stand could even withstand such a hefty order.
And Alam seemed unaware of the offer when The Post mentioned it to him Friday.
Alam also didn’t know that an anonymous New Yorker had launched a GoFundMe aimed at providing real compensation for his contribution to the artwork.
The fundraiser’s creator, who only identified themself by the initials JS, promised to personally hand over the proceeds to Alam the first week of December.
“Do we really want to live in a city where we can shrug off a street vendor who’s moved to tears by the fact that he’s been made the butt of a joke involving an amount of wealth obscene to him, while celebrating some smartass for figuring out how to make $6 million from that joke? If this utter and gross indifference isn’t what ails us, what is?” JS wrote.
The campaign had raised nearly $14,000 by Friday — greatly surpassing its $5,000 goal. JS also promised to match the first $5,000 donations, which would bring the grand total closer to $20,000.
Customer Juan Posada, who shops at Alam’s cart during his regular vacations to New York City from Spain, was outraged by the debacle.
“Since the beginning of this city, when the Dutch arrived, everything in this city has been about speculation,” Posada said.
“In the 200 years of New York City’s history, this is the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen.”
Sotheby’s did not return The Post’s request for comment.
