Whenever an absurdly priced work of art makes it to the news, laypeople immediately jump to the explanation of money laundering, but any artist, art purchaser, or even money launderer would know that this is ridiculous. You'd be an idiot to launder their money in the most publicized auction in the year. If you wanted to launder money, it would most likely be through low-profile private sales.
I agree that any individual piece is not guaranteed to be laundering, but the market as a whole is definitely pushed upwards by more factors than people's desire for historical artifacts or decoration.
In any case, in the true upper end of the market, most of these auctions are publicized but the buyers are behind many layers of indirection.
In this specific case we know who bought it Justin Sun. He's a Hong Kong based cyrptocurrency investor who ate it. So it seems like in this case it was more about getting some press, and probably a bit of distraction against some of the allegations against him.
- that buyer didn’t get a real banana. Should have a lifetime supply for that price!
or
- Robert Ryman was exhibited in the Orangerie Museum and compared to Monet (in the equivalent sense).
The bulk of Ryman’s art is a plain white canvas. Not a single dot. Not even a frame. Textured drywall painted with bargain white paint is far more interesting…
