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.

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.

A good curiosity about Comedian is that the banana itself is not the real artwork. What collectors actually buy is the certificate of authenticity plus the installation instructions, so the fruit can be replaced whenever it rots. That is part of the joke — and the point — because Cattelan turns a cheap, perishable object into a work about value, spectacle, and the art market. The piece debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, and one edition later sold at Sotheby’s for $6.2 million.