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Man Who Ate Banana Worth £91,000 Off Gallery Wall Says He's 'Not Sorry'

Man Who Ate Banana Worth £91,000 Off Gallery Wall Says He's 'Not Sorry'

He said he would have eaten it sooner if he had felt peckish

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Remember the guy who chomped into the $120,000 (£91,000) banana at the Art Basel show? Well, if you're thinking he might have shown some remorse, you're in for a shock because he's now told journalists he would have eaten it even sooner, only he was 'not too hungry'.

Performance artist David Datuna hit headlines on Saturday after he visited the gallery in Miami Beach, Florida, and helped himself to a piece of artwork called 'Comedian' by Maurizio Cattelan.

The piece consisted of a single banana duct-taped to a wall and two previous editions sold for $120,000 (£91,000) each.

In a clip that shows him eating the banana, Datuna can be heard saying: "Art performance... hungry artist. Thank you, very good."

Speaking in New York about the incident, Georgian-born Datuna said: "I decided in the morning. But I was not too hungry. So I spent another two hours to the Basel and I eat it."

He added: "First of all, I very respect this artist. For me, he is one of the top artists in the world.

"And I think this is the first one in art history when one artist eat concept for another artist. People ask me, you eat banana? Physically it was banana, but banana is just a tool. So usually I eat the concept of the art."

The expensive artwork.
PA

Datuna went on to say that he hadn't destroyed the piece by eating part of it, explaining: "So it's not like, again, vandalism. It was art performance from me. And absolutely, I'm not sorry.

"I call performance 'Hungry Artist'. Yeah, because I was hungry and I just eat it." Fair enough.

And he has a point, because the artwork is designed to have the banana removed and changed out.

Lucien Terras, director of museum relations for Galerie Perrotin, told the Miami Herald: "He did not destroy the art work. The banana is the idea.

"This has brought a lot of tension and attention to the booth and we're not into spectacles. But the response has been great. It brings a smile to a lot of people's faces.

Performance artist David Datuna.
PA

Speaking to Artnet on the day his piece went on display, Cattelan explained: "Wherever I was travelling I had this banana on the wall. I couldn't figure out how to finish it.

"In the end, one day I woke up and I said, 'The banana is supposed to be a banana.'"

Art and a nutritious, delicious snack - what more can you ask for, eh?

Featured Image Credit: David Datuna/Instagram

Topics: US News, Weird