Comedian

Comedian is a work of conceptual art by Maurizio Cattelan consisting of a fresh banana affixed to a wall with a single strip of silver duct tape. Debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019, presented by Galerie Perrotin, it immediately became a global sensation. Two editions sold for $120,000 each, a third for $150,000, and in November 2024 an edition fetched $6.2 million at Sotheby's. The work exists as a certificate of authenticity with precise installation diagrams; the physical banana and tape are replaceable, underscoring that the idea — not the object — is the artwork.

Cattelan, known for provocative gestures such as taping his gallerist to a wall and suspending a taxidermied horse from a ceiling, conceived Comedian after two years of exploring the banana as sculptural form. The piece ignited fierce debate about the nature of value in contemporary art, amplified when performance artist David Datuna ate one of the bananas on display in an action he titled "Hungry Artist." Whether read as satire of the art market, a memento mori, or a Duchampian readymade for the Instagram age, Comedian remains one of the most discussed artworks of the 21st century.