If you haven’t been living under a rock, you probably know about the $120,000 Banana artwork at Art Basel in Miami Beach. The art piece is basically a banana duct-taped to a wall, created by the artist Maurizio Cattelan and titled “Comedian.”
Three buyers had paid between $120,000 and $150,000 for limited-edition pieces coming with a certificate of authenticity and replacement instructions.
However, on Saturday last weekend, a New York City-based performance artist, David Datuna, ate the artwork. In what he called “Hungry artist” performance, he simply walked to the taped banana, peeled it from the wall and devoured it.
Surprisingly, there was no police or legal intervention. The Galerie Perrotin‘s and the artist’s representative commented on what happened. She said in an interview on Saturday that the gallery was not taking any action against David Datuna.
Later the gallery replaced the banana with another one. They argued that it was only a representation, and the artwork was not “destroyed”.
