Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s artwork featuring a fresh banana taped to a wall has been eaten by a visitor to a museum in France.
The piece, titled “Comedian,” was eaten by a gallery-goer at the Centre-Pompidou Metz in eastern France on July 12, according to a statement from the museum, published Monday.
“The security team acted quickly and calmly, according to internal procedures,” the gallery said in the statement.
“The artwork was reinstalled a few minutes later,” it said, adding that the banana is “only a perishable element” that is replaced on a regular basis according to Cattelan’s instructions.
Centre-Pompidou Metz said the artist was disappointed that the visitor had considered the fruit itself to be the artwork, instead of eating the skin and the tape that held it in place as well.