Man Eats $120,000 Banana with No Regrets

Contemporary art is often mocked, but when paired with a brave or possibly reckless art performer, you get a worldwide viral story of a man eating an $120,000 banana.

Maurizio Cattelan is a renowned Italian contemporary artist; he is also extremely controversial. He most recently had an art exhibit at Art Basel in Miami Beach, an international art fair. At the exhibit he displayed an interesting piece, a banana duct-taped to a wall worth $120,000. The piece alone attracted tons of attention but the notoriety of this absurdly expensive fruit only escalated with the appearance of David Datuna.

David Datuna is an installation and performance artist from Georgia. He is most known for series called Viewpoint of Millions which is about the meaning of cultural identity and the sources of different perspectives. Datuna showed up to Cattelan’s exhibit in Art Basel, walked up to his piece, and ate the $120,000 banana. Afterwards, he was escorted out of the premises. During a press conference after the incident Datuna said,”It wasn’t vandalism, it was art performance from me and absolutely I am not sorry.” 

After the incident with the consumption of the banana, the banana was replaced and people flocked to the artwork to take pictures with the now infamous banana. One particular person decided to make his own art as he declared, “This is the gallery where anyone can do art, right?” And then proceeded to draw out “Epstein didn’t kill himself” onto the wall, in reference to the multimillionaire disgraced accountant who committed suicide in August; many speculate that Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

However iconic and controversial this artwork of an expensive banana, titled “Comedian” may seem, is not Cattelan’s only significant work. In 2016, he created a functional toilet out of 18 karat gold to be placed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, a famous art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue in New York. While Cattelan is mostly notorious for his golden throne and expensive banana, he is also known for creating many other strange works including a wax statue of Pope II being hit by a meteor, The Artist is Present, and Not Afraid of Love.