The banana of the work Comedianby the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelanwas robbed this Saturday at the Center Pompidou-Metzwhere it is part of the exhibition «Dimanche san fin» (Endless Sunday) and the collection of the Pompidou Center.
The disappearance of the banana – which constitutes the perishable element of the installation – was detected around 2:00 p.m. (local time) by a surveillance agent at the museum located northeast of France.
The Pompidou-Metz Center filed a complaint and condemned the incident, considering that it represents a lack of respect towards the works on display and temporarily deprives visitors of part of the experience proposed by the exhibition.
The quick replenishment of the banana
However, the museum stated that the piece did not suffer irreversible damage and that it has already been answered.
The work Comedian It consists of a real banana attached to a wall using a piece of silver duct tape. It was first presented in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach. Since then, the piece quickly became one of the most talked about and controversial works of the contemporary art.
The French institution recalled that the value of Comedian resides mainly in its certificate of authenticity and in the protocol that regulates its display, more than in the fruit itself.
In accordance with the instructions established for the work, the banana was replaced quickly and the facility recovered its original presentation a few hours after the incident.
The work proposes a reflection on the heritage of ‘ready-made’, an artistic movement popularized by Marcel Duchamp, which transforms everyday objects into works of art through the artist’s decision to present them as such.
The controversy and the millions of dollars
The piece too raises questions about the nature of artthe construction of value in the artistic market, the role of cultural institutions and the relationship between the physical object and the concept it represents.
The work achieved enormous media impact due to its seemingly banal appearance and for the high price of its editions, which were sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
In fact, in 2024 Comedian It sold for $6.2 million. at a Sotheby’s auction. Its buyer was Chinese millionaire Justin Sun.
“Eating it at a press conference can also become part of the history of the work of art,” said the founder of the art company at that time. Tron cryptocurrenciesand then assert: “it is much better than other bananas.”
In addition, it has been involved in several notorious incidents in which visitors or performing artists removed or They ate the exposed banana. More precisely, in 2025 a visitor ate it, FranceInfo recalled.
However, these actions paradoxically reinforced the debate about the meaning of the piece and contributed to its fame. International.
For Cattelan, known for his provocative humor and his criticism of art conventions, Comedian works as both a conceptual work and a satire on the contemporary art market and the mechanisms that determine what is considered art and what value is attributed to it.
In Metz, the installation is part of the ‘Abecedario’ conceived by Cattelan for the exhibition and occupies alone the section titled «When we stop understanding the world.»
With information from EFE
