Maurizio Cattelan’s Banana Stolen from Centre Pompidou-Metz
5June 2, 2026
Ever since Italian visual artistMaurizio Cattelanfirst made a splash atArt Basel Miami Beach 2019with the artworkComedian, 2019, which consists of a banana affixed to a gallery wall with a single piece of duct-tape (in an edition of three). In the last six years, the work has been both a press magnet and a target fordisruptive behavior, including two instances in2023and2025when the banana was eaten by visitors to museums exhibiting the work.
This week, theCentre Pompidou-Metz Museum in Metz, France announced in apress releasethat the banana in the edition ofComedianthat’s currently on display in theCattelan-curated exhibition “Endless Sunday: A Living Exhibition in Perpetual Motion,” had been stolen. An accompanying photograph dated May 30th shows a mangled, banana-less strip of duct tape stuck to a white wall.
In a statement, the Pompidou-Metz said that “the value of the work lies in its certificate of authenticity and then the protocol governing its presentation rather than in its perishable element.” Thankfully, the fruit itself will not be sorely missed—Cattelan’s instructions for displaying the work require the banana to be replaced every three days.
“The institution nevertheless condemns this act which undermines the respect due to the works on display and temporarily deprives visitors of part of the experience offered by the exhibition,” the statement continues. “In accordance with the protocol established for this work no irreversible damage was observed.”
In 2019, three editions of Comedian were sold by Perrotin Gallery for between $120,000 and $150,000 at Art Basel Miami Beach. Five years later, in 2024, the artwork sold for $6.2 million in a Sotheby’s auction to crypto-billionaire Justin Sun. After making the purchase, Sun famously chowed down on his new purchase in front of the press.