A museum visitor consumed the banana from Maurizio Cattelan’s conceptual artwork “Comedian” at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in France last week, museum officials confirmed recently.
Security personnel quickly intervened after the visitor bit into the fruit, which forms part of the 2019 artwork featuring a banana affixed to a wall with duct tape. The piece was restored within minutes using a replacement banana, following the artist’s standard instructions for the perishable component.
The incident occurred during “The Endless Sunday,” an exhibition celebrating the museum’s 15th anniversary that features 30 Cattelan works alongside 400 pieces from Paris’s Musée National d’Art Moderne.
Cattelan, the Italian conceptual artist known for provocative and satirical works that often challenge traditional notions of art, expressed disappointment that the person only ate the fruit rather than the entire installation. His previous pieces have included a solid gold toilet titled “America” and sculptures featuring Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite. “The visitor just consumed the fruit” instead of “eating the banana with its skin and duct tape,” he told AFP, suggesting they had “confused the fruit for the work of art.”
This marks at least the fourth time someone has eaten the banana from “Comedian” since its 2019 debut at Art Basel Miami Beach. Performance artist David Datuna consumed it at the original exhibition, while billionaire Justin Sun ate his $6.24 million purchase at a Hong Kong press conference last year. A hungry Seoul National University student also ate the fruit during a 2023 exhibition in South Korea.
The artwork’s three editions have sold for prices ranging from $120,000 to $6.24 million, with one acquired by the Guggenheim Museum.
Image Courtesy: Maurizio Cattelan Comedian (2019) | Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images.
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