Maurizio Cattelan’s (in)well-known duct-taped banana has briefly gone lacking from a present in northern France. The work, generally known as Comic (2019), is on show within the exhibition Countless Sunday-Maurizio Cattelan and the Centre Pompidou Assortment on the Centre-Pompidou Metz (till 25 January 2027).
In keeping with a press release from the museum, the work by the Italian artist was “stolen” on 30 Could. The disappearance of the banana, which constitutes “the perishable ingredient of the work”, was reported by a museum safety guard. The banana has already been changed and the “work has been restored to its authentic presentation as shortly as doable”.
The museum has filed a grievance with the authorities, though the perpetrators stay unknown. In its assertion on the theft, the museum highlights that “the worth of the work lies in its certificates of authenticity after which the protocol governing its presentation quite than in its perishable ingredient.“
The assertion provides: “The establishment however condemns this act which undermines the respect because of the works on show and briefly deprives guests of a part of the expertise provided by the exhibition. In accordance with the protocol established for this work no irreversible injury was noticed.”
The banana is certainly a straightforward goal; final 12 months a customer ate the fruit shortly after the exhibition opened in Could on the Centre Pompidou-Metz. It has additionally been consumed by a efficiency artist at Artwork Basel Miami Seaside in 2019, when it was unveiled, and once more by a hungry artwork scholar on the Leeum Museum of Artwork in Seoul in 2023.
Comic has been derided as each a consequence of art-market extra and lauded as a tongue-in-cheek image of its personal absurdity. When requested in regards to the work, Cattelan informed The Artwork Newspaper in 2021: “To me, Comic was not a joke; it was a honest commentary and a mirrored image on what we worth. At artwork festivals, velocity and enterprise reign, so I noticed it like this: if I needed to be at a good, I might promote a banana like others promote their work. I might play throughout the system, however with my guidelines.”
