A banana, centerpiece of an artwork called ‘Comedian’ has been reported stolen from a museum in Metz, France—and it’s not the first time the taped-to-the-wall banana has gone astray.
While there’s no evidence—yet—that it’s happened again, the last time the banana went missing it was plucked from the wall by a museum visitor and eaten on the spot. Guards promptly taped up another banana—a ritual followed every three days anyway because the fruit spoils.
If this all sounds like a lot of nonsense, read on…
The work is by Maurizio Cattelan, who once crafted a gold toilet and offered it to Donald Trump. ‘Comedian’ was first shown at Art Basel 2019 in Miami Beach, with an asking price of $120,000; it was eaten at the show by a performance artist. Five years later, Justin Sun, a crypto financier, paid $5.2 million for a copy of the work, and then ate it on camera in Hong Kong.
The museum says it decided to call the cops this time because the perpetrator was unidentified, so that “there is no possibility of dialogue.”
