Miami (AFP)
What is yellow, that is scotche on the wall, worth $ 120,000 and that we can eat? A banana sold for this prize by an artist, and another artist was happy to devour in order to shock the bourgeois.
Entitled "Comedian", the work, a simple fruit hanging on a wall by the Italian Maurizio Cattelan, had been acquired by a French collector for this sum.
It was exhibited on Saturday at the contemporary art exhibition Art Basel in Miami Beach (USA) when a visitor decided on a happening.
As a video on his Instagram account shows, David Datuna, who describes himself as an American artist of Georgian origin settled in New York, takes off the banana from the white wall, peels it and eats it in front of a crowd of curious people. He sees in it an "artistic performance" which he calls "Hungry Artist", before being escorted out of sight by security.
The damage is only very relative, according to the gallery Emmanuel Perrotin, who sold "Comedian". "It did not destroy the work, banana is the idea," said its Director of Museum Relations Lucien Terras, in the daily Miami Herald.
All the value lies in the certificate of authenticity, the fruit is expected to be replaced regularly rather than rotting. Moreover, after a quarter of an hour a new banana was taped to the wall.
Maurizio Cattelan is best known for "America", 18-carat gold toilets that work, with seat, bowl and flush of rigor. This work, worth five to six million dollars, has disappeared since it was stolen in September at the Blenheim Palace, a castle in Woodstock (southern England).
© 2019 AFP