An artist at the Art Basel Show in Miami Beach astonished the audience by eating a banana he pulled off a wall.
Eating a banana in front of an audience doesn’t look like a strange thing. Then why is it so astonishing? Actually, the banana was worth more than $100,000.
The banana was actually a ‘work of art.’ It was created by Maurizio Cattelan, an Italian artist, who titled it Comedy.
Comedy was sold to an avid French art collector at a price of $120,000.
The incident was captured on camera and was shared on the Instagram account of David Datuna, a self-proclaimed Georgian-born American artist.
In the clip shared on David’s Instagram account, he can be seen walking up to the wall where the banana is pasted with a duct tape.
After he has peeled the banana off, he can be seen gobbling it, leaving the audience awestruck.
As he peels the banana off and takes a bite from it, David can be heard saying: “Art performance… hungry artist. Thank you, very good.”
Some of the people seeing the act can be seen laughing over it. In the meantime, a member of the staff comes and takes David back with him. Most probably to discuss what David just did.
However, the situation was solved in a very short time. The banana was replaced by a new one and the ‘work of art’ was up and running in just 15 minutes after its demolition.
Lucien Terras, the director of museum relations for Galerie Perrotin, told the Miami Herald: “He did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea.”
Talking about the authenticity of the art work, the newspaper told that the banana was actually meant to be replaced.
Terras said: “This has brought a lot of tension and attention to the booth and we’re not into spectacles. But the response has been great. It brings a smile to a lot of people’s faces.”
The banana Cattelan originally used to make the art piece was sourced from a Miami Supermarket.
He has sold two of the art pieces already and is planning to sell a third and final piece to a museum. It looks like he already has a couple of potential buyers.
Cattelan said the art piece took him a year to complete and that he has also made the same in bronze and resin.
He said: “Wherever I was traveling I had this banana on the wall. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it. In the end, one day I woke up and I said, ‘The banana is supposed to be a banana.’”
Replaced!