Maurizio Cattelan's Infamous Banana Vanishes. Again

The banana at the center of Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian has disappeared once more, this time from the Centre Pompidou-Metz, where the work is on view in Dimanche Sans Fin through next January. Museum staff noticed the fruit was missing around 2 p.m. on Saturday, then restored the piece after determining that no irreversible damage had been done.

The institution said the work was repaired in line with the protocol that governs it. That protocol, Cattelan has said, requires the banana to be replaced every few days, a reminder that the artwork's value does not rest in the fruit itself but in the certificate of authenticity and the instructions that define its presentation.

The museum has now filed an official complaint with authorities. In a statement, it said the disappearance“undermines the due respect for the works on display and temporarily deprives visitors of part of the experience proposed by the exhibition.” Le Monde reported that the complaint was also prompted by the thief's anonymity, which left“no possibility of dialogue.”

This is the second time the Centre Pompidou-Metz has had to replace the banana. The work has also drawn attention for earlier episodes in which people ate the fruit component at exhibitions in Miami, Seoul, and Hong Kong. Among the most widely reported incidents were late performance artist David Daturna's consumption of the banana at Galerie Perrotin's 2019 booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, a Seoul art student's similar act nearly four years later at the Leeum Museum Art, and Justin Sun's eating of the work after acquiring it for $6.2 million at Sotheby's in 2024.

The museum has not said whether it will add extra security for the rest of the exhibition. For a work built around repetition, protocol, and public reaction, the latest disappearance only sharpens the uneasy line between conservation and spectacle.

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