Someone Ate The $120k ‘Banana Duct Taped To Wall’ Artwork
A New York-based performance artist ate that $120,000 banana duct taped to a wall at the Art Basel exhibition in Miami Beach on Saturday — sending the gallery that sold it into a PR tailspin. At around 1:45 p.m. in the afternoon David Datuna pried Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” — honestly just banana duct-taped to a wall — loose, peeled it open, and then devoured it in front of shocked onlookers, footage of the deed shows. It was “delicious,” he said, noting with a wink, “I can eat the banana and the concept of the banana — because I am an artist and not a regular human.” The gallery reported the incident to security, but Datuna slipped away without incident. The gallery, meanwhile, insisted that the piece lives on. “He did not destroy the work!” spokesman Lucien Terras said. “The banana is the idea.” The controversial piece created a stir earlier in the week when a French collector purchased it for $120,000.