Fragile: When Bananas Sell for Millions and Wildlife Vanishes for Free

Warning: This article contains some imagery of poaching activity that may be upsetting.

In 2019, the art world was shaken, or perhaps just mildly amused, by a piece called Comedian. It consisted of nothing more than a ripe banana, duct-taped to a white wall. Its creator, Maurizio Cattelan, created three editions – one of which notably originally sold for $120,000. However, in October last year (2024), one version of Comedian sold at a Sotheby’s auction for an unprecedented $5.2 million, with nearly $1 million further added in fees.

Depending on your perspective, Comedian was either a brilliant commentary on the absurdity of the art market, or a stunt that revealed how far spectacle has outpaced substance.

Fast forward to September 2025, and artist Cole Stirling has created Fragile, a response that could not be more timely or more haunting. At first glance, the work is deceptively simple: meticulously rendered charcoal drawing of an elephant tusk. Draped across it, in stark capital letters, is a banner that simple reads: fragile. More than a statement, the tape symbolises ivory, packed and shipped like a mere commodity. And like any consumer product, it’s impact and true cost is hidden from us – in this case, the life of an elephant.

The juxtaposition is no accident. Cole is asking us to weigh the value of a banana against the value of a life, or rather, the lives of thousands of elephants lost to the ivory trade each year (approximately 20,000). And in doing so, he is inviting us to reflect on what $6.2 million might have achieved if it had been directed toward conservation, rather than a piece of taped fruit.

What Could $6.2 Million Do for Conservation?

Let’s imagine.

• $6.2 million could fund dozens of anti-poaching patrols across Africa for years, protecting elephants, rhinos, and pangolins.
• It could provide vital training, resources, and salaries for hundreds of rangers, the frontline defenders of some of the world’s most threatened species and those directly affected by recent aid cuts (read the blog and support our appeal here).
• It could finance community livelihood projects, creating sustainable alternatives to poaching and empowering local people as stewards of wildlife.
• It could expand serious and wide-reaching demand-reduction campaigns in Asia, tackling the consumer markets that fuel the ivory trade.

In short, it could tip the scales for a species teetering on the brink.

Instead, the money bought a fruit destined to rot within days. And in fact, the buyer, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, recently boasted he ate the banana shortly after purchasing.

The Fragility of Value

Stirling’s duct-tape banner is more than a visual pun; it’s a provocation. We are being asked: what do we choose to label as valuable?

In the rarefied world of contemporary art, value is often constructed through scarcity, shock, or celebrity. But outside the gallery walls, ecosystems are collapsing, species are being driven to extinction, and cultures tied to wildlife are under siege. What could be more fragile than that?

A banana taped to a wall makes headlines. An elephant killed for its tusks barely registers beyond conservation circles. This imbalance of attention, what we choose to look at, and what we choose to ignore, is at the heart of Fragile.

Artivism and the Art Market

The irony is that art has always had the power to provoke, inspire, and shift society. Yet wildlife art, art that confronts us with the stakes of extinction, art that insists nature has a voice, is often sidelined. It is dismissed as decorative, or “not serious,” in comparison to the conceptual experiments of the contemporary art world.

But what could be more serious than survival?

Stirling’s piece sits firmly in the tradition of artivism: art that is also activism. It is not just an object to be admired, but a question to be grappled with. It forces us to confront the absurdity of misplaced value systems.

If the art world can celebrate a banana for its potential to provoke reactions or its conceptual cleverness, why can’t it be moved by an elephant’s last breath?

Beyond the Frame: Fragility in Our Times

The word fragile is not just about ivory or art. It speaks to the age we are living in. Climate systems are fragile. Ocean health is fragile. The social contracts that bind communities to nature are fragile.

We are surrounded by broken and compromised ecosystems, conservation policies, and inert, apathetic governance. And yet, we continue to prize spectacle over substance, distraction over action.

Stirling’s tusk is not simply an artwork. It is a mirror. It shows us what we stand to lose, and what we are willing, or unwilling, to value.

Revaluing What Matters

There is a deep irony in the fact that art meant to shock often does little more than entertain, while art that seeks to protect is overlooked. But perhaps this is starting to shift. The rise of artivism, the growing recognition of wildlife art, and platforms like Wildlife Artist of the Year are proving that art can be both aesthetically powerful and socially urgent.

When you stand before pieces like Fragile and other challenging pieces in this year’s exhibition, you are not just looking at a piece of art. You are standing at the intersection of two worlds: one where value is measured in novelty, and one where value is measured in survival.

The challenge is simple, yet immense: which world do we choose to invest in?

A Final Reflection

The banana in Comedian was always destined to decay. Yet elephants, rhinos, and countless other species are, heartbreakingly, on the same trajectory, unless we act.

Fragile is a warning and a plea. It asks us to recognise that the most fragile things in our world are not the objects taped to gallery walls, but the living beings we risk losing forever.

Art has the power to shape culture. Conservation has the power to shape the future. Together, they remind us that we cannot afford to look away, or to laugh off what is disappearing.

Because when wildlife is gone, no amount of money, no clever stunt, no wry provocation will bring it back. Ultimately, if we can spend millions on a banana, surely, we can spend as much to save an elephant, or even a collective wild future for us all.