It’s bananas!
A popular and pricey piece of art has been eaten — yet again.
Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” — which features a real banana duct taped to a wall — has been replicated by the artist several times, most recently fetching a phenomenal $6.2 million at auction at Sotheby’s in New York City.
Apparently, hungry art appreciators can’t peel themselves away.
A version of the weird work that has been on display at the Centre-Pompidou Metz in France since early May was gobbled up by a visitor on July 12, according to a statement from the museum.
However, both the gallery and artist seemed unbothered.
“The security team acted quickly and calmly,” the gallery said in the statement.
A fresh banana was taped to the wall a few minutes later. The gallery noted that the fruit is “only a perishable element” of the artwork — to be replaced regularly as per Cattelan’s instructions.
The artist wasn’t necessarily upset that the banana was eaten; he reportedly was more disappointed that the gallery-goer “confused the fruit for the work of art” and left the peel and tape untasted.
The conceptual comestible, which first debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, has been said to offer a commentary on the ridiculousness of the art world, with its meaning tied to the money and fanfare it attracts — with many articles written about the edible effort since it was unveiled.
“In that way, the work becomes self-reflexive: The higher the price, the more it reinforces its original concept,” Cattelan told the New York Times.
“Comedian” has peeled back the pretensions of the creative industry, with Sotheby’s saying it has “single-handedly prompted the world to reconsider how we define art, and the value we seek in it.”
Cattelan previously garnered attention for creating a working 18-carat-gold toilet worth $3.5 million called “America,” intended to poke fun at the US for its excessive wealth.
The original “Comedian” banana was eaten by performance artist David Datuna during the piece’s Miami debut — describing the act as a performance piece titled “Hungry Artist.”
The stunt attracted a whole bunch of attention and became one of the art world’s biggest viral moments.
The work sold — with replacement banana —for $120,000 at the fair.
Over the years, the artwork has garnered global headlines and even appeared on the cover of The Post.
In 2023, an art student took the banana from the wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, and bit into it.
The next year, Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of a cryptocurrency platform, acquired “Comedian” for $6.24 million at auction — and took a bite.
So while it’s an original piece, eating it isn’t an original idea.
“For now, it is perhaps the ‘most-eaten’ artwork of the last 30 years,” Centre-Pompidou Metz said in the statement.
