Student Eats Museum’s Banana-Themed Work Of Art: ‘I Was Hungry’

Although conceptual art is meant to appeal to people’s minds rather than their senses, one student visiting a Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art saw a work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan as nothing more than a midday snack.

The piece of art, which is titled “Comedian,” features a banana that’s duct-taped to a wall. The unidentified Seoul National University student is accused of taking the banana from the wall, eating it, and then retaping the peel to the wall. “The student told the museum he ate it because he was hungry,” a spokesman says. “It happened suddenly.”

As it turns out, the banana was likely the most expensive piece of fruit the young man has ever eaten. While the artwork might seem simple to the uneducated, the banana-duct tape creation sold for $120,000 back in 2019.