That was one expensive snack.
The banana art piece that made headlines around the world because it was duct-taped to a wall and estimated to cost CA$160,000 has been consumed by another artist.
The banana was stuck to a wall with duct tape by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, someone who is already known for his satirical artwork. It sold to a French woman for thousands.
Cattelan, who is also known for a 2017 art piece that was an 18-carat-gold toilet entitled America, called the banana piece Comedian.
He said he worked on it for a year: “Wherever I was travelling, I had this banana on the wall. I couldn’t figure out how to finish it,” he told the art publication ArtNet.
“In the end, one day I woke up and said, ‘the banana is supposed to be a banana.’”
A second version of the art piece was also sold to a French man, according to ArtNet, and a third sold to a museum.
The man who ate the banana is now calling it performance art.
David Datuna — described in The New York Times as a N.Y.-based performance artist — uploaded a video to his Instagram page on Saturday, showing him taking the banana off the wall — duct tape still attached — and eating it.
In his caption, Datuna calls his impromptu gallery snacking an “art performance” titled “Hungry Artist.”
“I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation,” his caption says, punctuated with smiley faces. “It’s very delicious.”
But the snacking won’t affect the artwork’s value. Lucien Terras, a spokesman for Galerie Perrotin, told the Miami Herald that the piece is not destroyed.
“The banana is the idea,” Terras told the Herald.
Photographs by Reuters show people taking photos next to the banana that replaced the original banana in Comedian.
Global News has also emailed Galerie Perrotin and Art Basel for comment.
A spokesman for Miami Beach police told NBC News that the agency has not crossed paths with the performance artist.
A gallery spokesperson is also cited as saying there had been no complaints and that Comedian came with “instructions” to replace the banana “as necessary.”
— With files by Meaghan Wray, Reuters