London's banana split

It was the cutting-edge, fruitbased masterpiece set to challenge the artistic dominance of conceptual superstars such as Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst - and it was meant to be coming to London.

Sculptor Doug Fishbone's creation made of 10,000 bananas has already proved a hit in Poland, Ecuador and New York.

Yet tomorrow's planned unveiling has come a cropper thanks to a lastminute banana-skin and now Londoners may not get the chance to enjoy Mr Fishbone's work.

Perhaps it's the thought of all that rotting fruit. But the Spitalfields Development Group (SDG), which had invited the sculptor to install the piece in Spital Yard, near Liverpool Street, has suddenly withdrawn its offer.

The New York-born artist had been due to erect the sculpture to coincide with the laying of a timecapsule by the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Robert Finch, at the site of an apartment, office and leisure complex next to Spitalfields Market.

However, developers Hammerson - SDG's co-owners - have apparently got cold feet, much to the chagrin of the art world. Curator Tom Morton, who helped organise the installation, said: "Spitalfields Development Group asked us to do this art project and we came up with the idea of Doug's bananas.

They loved it and we prepared all the publicity. But the day after we'd sent out the press releases, the SDG told us that they'd decided to pull the project."

Mr Fishbone is now trying to find an alternative site. A spokesman at Hammerson's PR firm Tamesis claimed the event had never been confirmed.

Mr Fishbone, an MA student at London's Goldsmiths College, made his first banana sculptures in Ecuador, where he once assembled 40,000. Fishbone, 33, dismantled his New York sculpture by handing out bananas to passers-by. "It was important to me that nothing goes to waste," he said.

In London, he planned to spend up to £1,000 buying the fruit in Brick Lane market.