A man who vandalized the $120,000 Art Basel banana wins settlement against Trump campaign
Rod Webber, the Boston street artist dubbed “peace activist” who scrawled “Epstien didn’t kill himself” in red lipstick on a $120,000 banana art exhibit wall at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019 — misspelling Jeffrey Epstein’s surname — and was arrested on a criminal mischief charge, has apparently won another victory in court.
In February, Art Basel declined to pursue the case and criminal charges were dropped. This week, Webber won a settlement against Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
According to a tweet first posted by New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel on Dec. 28, Webber was awarded a $20,000 settlement in his suit against the Trump campaign on Dec. 23.
Webber’s suit against Trump campaign
Webber filed suit against the campaign and staffer Edward Deck stemming from a campaign event in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Oct. 12, 2015, in which Webber claims he was handled roughly by staffers when he tried to question the then-candidate Trump.
According to the Daily Beast, which linked to Vogel’s tweet, Webber claimed he was “thrown head first into a table” when he tried to question Trump five years ago.
In September, The New York Times, in an article on Trump’s use of campaign funds to pay legal claims, cited Webber’s long-running suit — there are 242 docket entries for the case according to New Hampshire Clerk of Court records.
“The Trump campaign has paid $101,828 to a New Hampshire-based firm, Cleveland, Water and Bass, that has been handling the case since last year,” the Times reported.
Cleveland, Water and Bass sent the Miami Herald the settlement agreement on Thursday that Vogel posted. Signed by Webber and attorney Bryan Gould from the firm, the document states the $20,000 settlement figure and acceptance is dependent on Webber releasing the named defendants from all claims then, now and in the future.
In the Webber legal team’s response to Deck’s motion for summary judgment, filed Sept. 24, 2020, with New Hampshire’s U.S. District Court, the filing reiterated that at the 2015 campaign event in New Hampshire, “Trump staff were trying to create a commotion to falsely blame it on Rod and prevent him from ‘holding the candidate’s feet to the fire’ as he was invited to do.”
Webber’s response went on to say that Deck “behaved aggressively ... in a manner clearly meant to intimidate him. At one point, Mr. Deck said, ‘you want to know my name, you’re going to see my name all over face,’ which I interpreted to be a threat to punch Rod, or worse,” the court document read.
The Art Basel banana outcome
In the unrelated banana flap, earlier this year, Art Basel decided to let the matter go so as not to reward Webber with more publicity, the Herald reported.
“Given that Art Basel wishes to avoid the publicity that Mr. Webber is intent on creating, we have informed [the prosecutor on the case] that it is Art Basel’s position that the criminal case be dismissed,” Bob Goodman, Art Basel’s Florida representative, wrote to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle in late January.
That Basel banana, by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and titled “Comedian,” generated more attention than the usual piece of fruit art.
Before Webber came along, another man, New York-based performance artist David Datuna, was accused by gallery representatives of eating the banana in front of a convention center full of art lovers.
Lucien Terras, director of museum relations for Galerie Perrotin, which exhibited the piece, explained at the time that the value of the artwork was the “idea” of it, a certificate, not the actual banana. As anyone who buys bananas at the supermarket knows, a banana turns ripe and rotten rather quickly.
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 5:13 PM.
