Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s piece of art “Comedian” hangs on display during an auction preview at Sotheby’s in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)

Why is this here?

Because it came into my email, it was a two-minute read, and it is just another daily sign of how utterly mad and lost the people of this world have become. More than any other period in world history. That is denied and debated by many, but the fact is folks living today are witness to myriad events and history made — daily — in the world that never happened before.

I’ve had discussions with individuals on how we are more decadent and perverse than the Romans at the height of their decadence and perversion, only to be chided and told how wrong I am. Get past the vomitoriums and The Collesium wherein Christians were fed to wild animals for entertainment [we have the vomitoriums nationwide with the massive eating disorders present in our culture, and while there may not be a centralized arena selling tickets to watch Christians being tortured, abused, murdered, raped and devoured by beasts such atrocities are occurring daily. Worldwide].

In these conversations, I’ve also mentioned how the Roman Empire never really fell to the point of disappearing from the face of the earth, and this, too, is met with derision, mocking, and arrogance due to the blind indoctrination received in the formative years of a person growing up in public and private schools, to only be continued in universities and colleges.

The Roman Empire merely adapted, transformed, moved, and expanded. Going from an emperor-dominated militaristic government to a theocracy-based government working out of Constantinople and expanding worldwide. From Roman soldiers to Roman priests.

The prophet Daniel is very clear on this truth. The last empire of the world is the Roman. It never totally vanished, fell, or left this earth. It merely adapted, altered, and turned to apoplanesis [leading astray].

So blended into every aspect of Western life it only appears to have vanished.

To where we are now…

Close to the Rapture of the Church.

Divisions and events occurring in America and all Western nations, all of the world as never before in world history.

The Great Falling Away and apostasy within the Church.

Technology.

To a banana being duct taped to a wall and selling for $6,200,000.

Nah, we’re not utterly mad and on the brink. People haven’t lost their minds. There isn’t strong delusion and evil running amok as never before…

…I must be only dreaming it all, right?

Oh, and to anyone that is foolish enough to believe that Maurizio Cattelan is an artist? And his duct taping a banana to a wall is art? I have a pair of underwear in the bottom of the hamper I’m stapling to a wall and calling it “Missed Laundry Day,” and I am taking bids presently…do I hear $100,000 as an opening bid? [Our house needs a lot of work done on it!].

Going utterly mad once, twice, going utterly mad a third time…SOLD! on the world gone utterly mad!

Best be paying attention. Daily. Always. Preparing. Because the time is short and each person needs to look up, look to the Lord, look to the Word of God, look to which of only two possible eternities will they enter?

Read on…

Ken Pullen, Thursday, November 21, 2024

Duct-taped banana sells for $6,200,000 at art auction

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

By Associated Press

Reprinted from the Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A piece of conceptual art consisting of a simple banana, duct-taped to a wall, sold for $6.2 million at an auction in New York on Wednesday, with the winning bid coming from a prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur.

“Comedian,” by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was a phenomenon when it debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach, as festivalgoers tried to make out whether the single yellow piece of fruit affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape was a joke or cheeky commentary on questionable standards among art collectors. At one point, another artist took the banana off the wall and ate it.

The piece attracted so much attention that it had to be withdrawn from view. But three editions sold for between $120,000 and $150,000, according to the gallery handling sales at the time.

Five years later, Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, has now paid more than 40 times that higher price point at the Sotheby’s auction. Or, more accurately, Sun purchased a certificate of authenticity that gives him the authority to duct-tape a banana to a wall and call it “Comedian.”

The piece attracted heavy attention at the busy auction at Sotheby’s, with attendees in the crowded room holding up phones to take photos as two handlers wearing white gloves stood at both sides of the banana.

Bidding started at $800,000 and within minutes shot up to $2 million, then $3 million, then $4 million, and higher, as the auctioneer, Oliver Barker, joked “Don’t let it slip away.”

“Don’t miss this opportunity,” Barker said. “These are words I’ve never thought I’d say: Five million dollars for a banana.”

The final hammer price announced in the room was $5,200,000, which didn’t include the about $1,000,000 in auction house fees, paid by the buyer.

In a statement, Sun said the piece “represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.” But he said the latest version of “Comedian” won’t last long.

“Additionally, in the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture,” Sun said.

Sotheby’s calls Cattelan “among Contemporary Art’s most brilliant provocateurs.”

“He has persistently disrupted the art world’s status quo in meaningful, irreverent, and often controversial ways,” the auction house said in a description of “Comedian.”

The sale came a day after a painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte sold for $121,200,000, a record for the artist, at a separate auction.

“The Empire of Light,” an eerie nighttime streetscape below a pale blue daytime sky, sold Tuesday as part of Christie’s sale of the collection of interior designer Mica Ertegun, who died last year at age 97.

The sale lifts Magritte into the ranks of artists whose works have gone for more than $100 million at auction. Magritte is the 16th member of the club, which also includes Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, according to the market analyst firm Artprice.

“The Empire of Light,” executed in 1954, was one of 17 versions of the same scene that Magritte painted in oil. Marc Porter, chairman of Christie’s Americas, called the sale “a historic moment in our saleroom.”

The $121,200,000 price included the auction house’s fees. The buyer was a telephone bidder whose identity was not disclosed.