Tape banana and other pieces of seriously expensive art

Image source, Pixabay

This duct-taped banana caused quite a stir recently after it was sold for a whopping $121,000 (拢92,166) in America!

It's called "Comedian" and although it might not be to everybody's taste, three versions of the artwork have already been sold.

There's since been an interesting development - the famous banana has been eaten!

The artwork was put on display at the international gallery Perrotin at Art Basel in Miami. However, performance artist David Datuna ended up taking it off the wall and eating it!

Image source, Instagram/@david_datuna

Image caption, David ripped the banana from the wall and ate it all!

He posted his mischievous shenanigans on Instagram with the caption: "Art performance by me. I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation. It's very delicious."

Despite Datuna's actions annoying one member of staff at the gallery, the banana was quickly replaced with a new one and no further action was taken.

The art is said to come with a certificate of authenticity, which means owners can replace the banana.

"[Datuna] did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea," Lucien Terras, a director at the gallery, told the Miami Herald.

What's the art work all about?

"Comedian" was created by Maurizio Cattelan. The artist said he was extremely specific when choosing the right fruit for his pieces and also carefully considered where the banana would be placed in relation to the wall.

The bananas for the artwork were bought from a local Miami supermarket and then taped to a wall with a piece of duct tape.

Cattelan took about a year to come up with the idea for the banana piece. He said "Wherever I was travelling I had this banana on the wall. I couldn't figure out how to finish it."

Emmanuel Perrotin, who has worked with the artist for 27 years, was shocked by how much attention the bananas were getting. Emmanuel said: "It's a miracle. I don't know how this happened, when we started to work together I had to fight to convince collectors one by one to buy his work.'

Now thousands of people are flocking to the gallery in Miami to take pictures of it.

Have a go at our quiz to see if you can guess how much some of the most expensive but weird pieces of art cost.

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