French museum reports: well-known banana taped to the wall stolen again

The most famous banana in the art world (apart from Andy Warhol’s pop art copy) was stolen on Saturday. It’s about the work Comedian (2019) by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan: a fresh piece of fruit stuck to the wall with silver-gray duct tape. On Sunday, the Center Pompidou-Metz museum reported the theft.

The banana, which must be changed regularly in any case due to the rotting process of the fruit, was immediately replaced after its discovery on Saturday. “In accordance with the protocol established for this work of art, there is no irreparable damage,” the museum said in a press statement. The value of the work does not lie in the specific banana, but in the certificate of authenticity and in the written instructions for gluing the banana – always measured exactly 160 centimeters from the floor.

Nevertheless, the museum strongly condemns the theft, “which undermines respect for the works on display.” Comedian hung in Metz because of a long-term exhibition who dedicates the museum to Cattelan. A visitor also stole the banana in July last year. Then guards were able to intervene quickly, but now the perpetrator was not caught.

Provocative works of art

Maurizio Cattelan (1960) is known for his generally satirical, conceptual and provocative works. At his first solo show, which he never showed up, visitors stood in front of a locked gallery door behind which Cattelan had hung a small sign that read ‘TORNO SUBITO’ (I’LL BE BACK SOON). Later he made, among other things, a statue of Adolf Hitler as a kneeling schoolboy (Him2001), an eleven-meter high middle finger for the Milan Stock Exchange (LOVE2010) and a solid 18-carat gold toilet (America2018).

Comedian he presented in 2019 at the Art Basel art fair. Critics’ opinions of the work ranged from a brilliant critique of the modern art world to a lazy travesty. The artwork had three editions. Two of them sold for the asking price of $120,000, and one for $150,000. Five years later, Sotheby’s auctioned the artwork for $6.2 million to crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who ate the banana during a press conference in Hong Kong.

The banana was outside of Sun’s performative meal and the earlier incident in Metz twice before consumed (without permission): at Art Basel, by the Georgian performance artist David Datuna, and in 2023 by a South Korean student who stuck the shell back on the wall. It is not known whether Saturday’s thief also ate the banana.

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