Someone Stole the World's Most Famous Banana – Again

The world's most famous banana has been stolen. Again. But this time, not eaten.

"Comedian," the 2019 artwork by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan – a real banana duct-taped to a wall – was taken from the Centre Pompidou in Metz, France, over the weekend. The museum has filed a complaint against unknown perpetrators.

The banana has led an extraordinary life since 2019. It has been eaten multiple times. It has been replaced each time. A security guard noticed the banana was missing on Saturday. The museum has since replaced it.

"Comedian" is part of an exhibition called "Dimanche sans fin," which runs until June 27. The work was already in the news in July 2025, when a visitor ate the fruit on display.

Because it is a real banana, the artwork is naturally unstable. It ripens, rots, and must be regularly replaced. The replacement follows a strict protocol: the banana is affixed at exactly 1.72 meters in height, tilted at a 37-degree angle. The fruit is meant to make viewers question their assumptions about art and its value.

The first person to eat the banana was contemporary artist David Datuna. At Art Basel Miami in 2019, he simply removed the banana from the wall, ate it, and declared, "Respect, Maurizio!" He later called himself "the first artist to eat another artist's art." In 2023, a Korean student ate the banana at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul. He said he was hungry and the work was "there to be eaten."

Last year, entrepreneur Justin Sun ate the banana after buying it for $5.2 million. He joked that it was "better than other bananas."

For now, the banana is back on the wall – replaced, repositioned, and ready for the next visitor who might be hungry, or irreverent, or just curious. The thief who took it over the weekend did not eat it. They just took it. Which might be the most honest response of all to a piece of art that asks: what is value, really? $5.2 million? A snack? Or a joke that never gets old?