A performance artist ate a really expensive snack totaling $120,000 at a Miami Beach, Florida, art gallery Saturday afternoon.
New York-based performance artist David Detuna ate a banana as part of the art display at around 1:45 p.m. in a room filled with art lovers, according to representatives with the Miami-based art gallery.
This happened and here’s the video: someone ripped the Maurizio Cattelan banana off the wall at @ArtBasel and ATE IT 🍌 pic.twitter.com/JOL41jLoeY
— JiaJia Fei 费嘉菁 (@VAJIAJIA) December 7, 2019
The banana was part of a piece of artwork that was duct-taped to an outer gallery wall at Art Basel in Miami Beach that sold for $120,000, the Miami Herald reported.
The $120,000 banana, which is ripe and edible, is called “Comedian,” and is the creation of Italian artist Maurizio Cattela.
The piece comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, and owners are told they can replace the banana as needed if it spoils, gets eaten, or gets stolen.
Although the banana was consumed, Lucien Terras, director of museum relations for the gallery said the original intent of the artwork was not destroyed.
“He did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea,” Terras said.
The reason it is not destroyed is because art collectors are buying the Certificate of Authenticity, not the banana itself.
“This has brought a lot of tension and attention to the booth and we’re not into spectacles,” Terras added. “But the response has been great. It brings a smile to a lot of people’s faces.”
Gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin was on his way to the airport when he heard the banana was eaten. He came back to the gallery upset when a fellow fair-goer gave him a banana to cheer him up.
Perrotin and a gallery assistant reattached the new banana to the wall around 2 p.m. Although the gallery reported Detuna’s act to security, he was not arrested.
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