Tourists ate artist Maurizio Cattelant's banana worth more than 160 billion VND

A fresh banana artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was eaten by a tourist visiting a museum in France.

According to a statement from the museum on July 21, the banana-encrusted work titled Comedian was eaten by a visitor to the gallery at the Centre-Pompidou Metz in eastern France on July 12.

"The security team acted quickly and calmly, in accordance with internal procedures," the gallery confirmed in a statement.

Comedian by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan

PHOTO: AFP

“The artwork was reassembled a few minutes later,” the report said, adding that the banana was “just a perishable element” that was regularly replaced according to Cattelan’s instructions.

A representative of the Centre-Pompidou Metz said that Cattelan was extremely disappointed that visitors considered the banana a dish. The gallery did not report the incident to the police.

Not the first time a banana has been eaten by a tourist

The Comedian demonstrates "the absurdity of financial speculation and the fragility of the knowledge systems that underpin the art market," according to the Centre-Pompidou Metz.

This is not the first time this artwork has been eaten by a visitor. In 2019, when Cattelan debuted his work Comedian at the Art Basel Miami art fair in Florida (USA), performance artist David Datuna took a banana from the wall, peeled it and ate it in front of hundreds of amazed fairgoers.

The event became one of the art world 's biggest viral moments, and the piece sold – along with its replacement banana – for $120,000 at the fair.

Justin Sun buys Comedian for $6.24 million at auction before eating banana

PHOTO: SCREENSHOT

Then, in 2023, an art student took a banana from the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea and ate it.

In November 2024, Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of a cryptocurrency platform, bought the Comedian for $6.24 million at auction before eating the banana. "It is now probably the most 'eaten' work of art in the last 30 years," the Centre-Pompidou Metz confirmed.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/khach-tham-quan-an-mat-qua-chuoi-hon-160-ti-dong-cua-nghe-si-maurizio-cattelant-185250722081110143.htm