Cattelan’s banana is gone: stolen from the Center Pompidou-Metz

According to the museum, a security guard noticed the banana was missing over the weekend. It has since been replaced. It caused a stir in the facility back in July 2025 when a visitor ate the fruit. “Comedian” will be shown in the “Dimanche sans fin” exhibition, which runs until June 27th.

Since it is a real banana, the work is naturally not permanently stable: the fruit begins to ripen, rot and has to be replaced regularly. This exchange follows a fixed protocol: The banana is placed at a height of exactly 1.72 meters and tilted at an angle of 37 degrees. The fruit is intended to encourage the viewer to question their view of art and its value.

The first to eat the banana was contemporary artist David Datuna. He simply removed the banana at Art Basel Miami in 2019, ate it and shouted: “Respect, Maurizio!” He later called himself “the first artist to eat another artist’s art.” In 2023, a Korean student ate the banana at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul. He said he was hungry and that the work was “there to be eaten.”

The following year, entrepreneur Justin Sun also ate the banana – after buying it for $5.2 million. He jokingly commented, “It’s better than the other bananas.”