A banana taped to a wall as part of an art piece worth $6.2m (£4.9m) has been stolen from an exhibition in France.
The Centre Pompidou-Metz has notified authorities of the stolen banana, which was first spotted by a security guard.
In a statement condemning the act, the art centre added that it has replaced the ‘perishable’ aspect of the work and restored it to its original presentation. The value of the artwork, it said, lies in its certificate of authenticity and the protocol governing its presentation, rather than the perishable component.
The history of Maurizio Cattelan’s 'The Comedian’
Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial piece of modern art, titled The Comedian, first debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach and caused an internet storm. Described by Cattelan – a surrealist artist – as “a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value,” it brought people flocking in such droves that it was eventually taken off the wall.
Before it did, three editions of the artwork were sold for between $120,000 and $150,000 – and, in another piece of metaphysical commentary, an artist (not Cattelan) took the banana off the wall and ate it.
In November 2024, it sold at auction in New York for $6.2m to cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun. Or more accurately, a certificate of authenticity that will let Sun tape a banana to a wall and call it The Comedian.
At the time, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, David Galperin, said that “what Cattelan is really doing is turning a mirror to the contemporary art world and asking questions, provoking thought about how we ascribe value to artworks, what we define as an artwork.
The bidding started at $800,000, but Sun ended up paying around 40 times that to gain the rights to The Comedian. In fact, the auction was so hotly anticipated that guests flooded the floor to take pictures of the banana itself (which was guarded by two handlers).
“Don’t miss this opportunity," the auctioneer, Oliver Barker, said. “These are words I've never thought I'd say: five million dollars for a banana.”
Justin Sun’s $6 million snack
Sun preceded to eat the banana, in his words “honouring its place in both art history and popular culture”.
He told the press conference he felt "disbelief" in the first 10 seconds after he won the seven-way bid, before realising "this could become something big".
Speaking at one of Hong Kong’s most expensive hotels in front of dozens of influencers and journalists, he said: "It's much better than other bananas. It's really quite good."