A New York-based performance artist ate the $150,000 banana at the Art Basel Exhibition in Miami Beach on Saturday.
“The artist is hungry”, - he said. Datuna pried Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” — a banana duct-taped to a wall — loose, peeled it open, and then devoured it. It was “delicious,” he told The Post. Better than a regular banana? “Of course,” he said, noting with a wink, “I can eat the banana and the concept of the banana — because I am an artist and not a regular human.”
“You’re not supposed to touch the art!” one aghast female onlooker shouted as Datuna became one, quite literally, with the sculpture, Perrotin Gallery partner Peggy Leboeuf told the Herald.
The gallery reported the incident to security, but Datuna slipped away, the outlet reported.
“It’s not about the piece. It’s an art performance,” he explained to The New Your Post.
“Maurizio Cattelan, I love him. One artist eats another artist. It’s fun.”
Datuna added: “The performance name is Hungry Artist.”
The gallery, meanwhile, insisted that the piece lives on.
“He did not destroy the work!” spokesman Lucien Terras told the Herald. “The banana is the idea.”
The piece created a stir earlier in the week when a French collector purchased it for 120 000 USD.
Demetre Ergemlidze
News Author