By Jack Guy, NCS
(NCS) — An art museum in France has filed a authorized grievance after a banana that makes up a part of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial artwork “Comedian” was stolen.
The theft was reported by a safety guard at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in the metropolis of Metz, jap France, on Saturday, in keeping with an announcement from the museum printed the similar day.
The gallery “has filed a complaint with the relevant authorities against persons unknown,” it stated in the assertion.
The theft “undermines the respect due to the works on display and temporarily deprives visitors of part of the experience offered by the exhibition,” it added.
It famous, nonetheless, that “the perishable component of the work has been replaced, and the work has been restored to its original presentation as quickly as possible.”
NCS has contacted the High Court of Metz and the Perrotin Gallery, which offered the artwork, for remark.
This is just not the first incident involving “Comedian,” which contains a recent banana taped to a wall.
In 2019, when Cattelan unveiled the work at the Art Basel Miami artwork honest in Florida, efficiency artist David Datuna grabbed the banana from the wall, earlier than peeling and consuming it in entrance of lots of of surprised honest attendees.
Then, in 2023, an artwork scholar took the banana from a wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, and ate it.
And in November 2024, Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founding father of a cryptocurrency platform, acquired “Comedian” for $6.24 million at public sale — earlier than consuming the banana.
Then, in July 2025, the banana was eaten by a gallery-goer at the Centre Pompidou-Metz.
“Comedian” is meant to exhibit the “absurdity of financial speculation and the fragility of knowledge systems that underpin the art market,” the museum stated in an announcement at the time.
Cattelan is thought for satirical items that problem standard tradition, usually upsetting debates round conceptual artwork.
Another one in all Cattelan’s viral artworks was a solid 18-carat-gold toilet “entitled” America, valued at round $6 million. It was first put in at New York’s Guggenheim in 2016 and was open to make use of by guests.
In 2019, it was stolen from Blenheim Palace in England — the birthplace of Winston Churchill — the place it was being exhibited. It has by no means been discovered.
The-NCS-Wire
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