A banana that is a central element of Maurizio Cattelan's conceptual artwork "Comedian" was stolen from the Pompidou-Metz museum in eastern France. The theft was discovered by a museum guard on May 30, 2026 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
The artwork features a real banana taped to a wall. The banana is perishable and replaced every three days to maintain the piece's contemporary nature [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The museum says this is the second incident involving the banana: in July 2025, a visitor ate the banana but no legal action was taken then. Maurizio Cattelan commented at the time, "I was disappointed the hungry visitor had consumed only the banana and not the tape as well" [1].
Pompidou-Metz filed a criminal complaint on May 31, 2026, against persons unknown for the theft because the perpetrator is unidentified and dialogue is not possible [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The museum noted the complaint was filed now due to the unknown suspect.
Maurizio Cattelan created "Comedian" to challenge ideas about art and value. The piece debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach with an asking price of $120,000 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. At that event, performance artist David Datuna ate the banana on stage, saying briefly, "I was hungry" [1, 2, 3, 4, 6].
In 2024, crypto founder Justin Sun paid $5.2 million for a version of "Comedian" and ate it on camera days later in Hong Kong [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Cattelan is also known for his gold toilet artwork "America," which was offered to Donald Trump during his presidency [1, 5].
In a related case, a UK court ruled in March 2026 that two men stole parts of "Comedian" during a 2020 exhibition at an 18th-century manor. The banana piece is perishable, so only the gold parts remain missing [5].
The Pompidou-Metz museum will continue to monitor the situation as it pursues the criminal complaint and seeks the return of the stolen artwork element.
