Banana duct-taped to a wall sells for $120,000. Then, a guy ate it because he was hungry

While the most bizarre art is attracting attention and fetching high prices at auctions, there are artists starved for recognition, trying to make ends meet. In such a scenario, an artwork that was sold for $120,000 was eaten by a fellow artist as a part of a performance. The piece, titled Comedian by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, is nothing but a ripening banana duct taped to a wall. The modern artwork hailed as the “a symbol of global trade" was on show at the international gallery Perrotin at Art Basel in Miami when New York-based performing artist David Datuna ripped it off and ate it, as he was hungry. 

Serving Delicious Art

The video of the stunt was posted on the artist's Instagram page and Datuna titled his performance as "Hungry Artist," while appreciating Cattelan's work. "I really love this installation," Datuna wrote on Instagram. "It’s very delicious," he added. 

The performace came as a shock to many, considering the price of the artwork. Cattelan sold two editions of the piece to private collectors for $120,000, according to a spokeswoman for Paris-based Galerie Perrotin, which displayed the artwork at Art Basel,The Guardian reported. 

Howeer, Datuna's stunt did not cost the buyer dearly since the ripening banana would inevitably go bad at some point anyway. The piece comes with a certificate of authenticity, that allows owners to replace the banana from time to time. Thus, Datuna did not destroy the art work, a director of the gallery told Miami Herald. 

Unapologetic About his Art

In a press conference, Datuna insisted that he did not consider his performance as an act of defacing another artist’s work. “As the gallery said, it’s not a banana, it’s a concept. And I just ate the concept of the artist. So I think this is cool, this is fun, this is what art is about," he said as per CNN.

Hunger Before Art

Datuna isn't the only one who ate the banana off the wall. Last year, a South Korean art student also gobbled up the banana from Cattelan's artwork, simply because he skipped breakfast. The student named Noh Huyn-soo was filmed removing the banana from a wall of the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul. He could be seen walking off with a satisfied grin, after eating the fruit.  

When the authorities asked Noh why he ate the banana, he replied that he was hungry, according to the Korea Herald. Later in an interview with local broadcaster KBS, the art student said that his act of apparently "damaging a work of modern art" could also be seen as art in itself. He said he went on to reattach the peel on the wall as a 'joke'.

“I thought it would be interesting … isn’t it taped there to be eaten?” he added. 

When the New York based artist was reportedly informed about the incident, he was unfazed and simply said, “No problem.” This may be because the banana of the artist's installation was replaced every two or three days anyway.