A South Korean student ate a banana that was part of a renowned art installation by Italian artist Maruizio Cattelan because he was “hungry”.
Noh Huyn-soo removed the fruit from a wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul before unpeeling and devouring it in front of shocked onlookers.
He then taped the peel back onto the wall. The museum later replaced it with a fresh banana.
The artwork, titled “Comedian”, consisted of a ripe banana duct-raped to a wall.
“The student told the museum he ate it because he was hungry,” a museum spokesperson told CNN.
“It happened suddenly, so no special action was taken. The artist (Cattelan) was informed of the incident but he didn’t have any reaction to it,” the spokesperson added.
The shocking incident was recorded by a friend of Noh in a video lasting over a minute.
Noh, an art student at Seoul National University, later told broadcaster KBS that he thought “damaging a work of modern art could also be [interpreted as] artwork” and that he came up with the idea to reattach the peel as “a joke”.
He added: “I thought it would be interesting … isn’t it taped there to be eaten?”
The banana, part of Cattalan’s Comedian installation, gets replaced every two or three days.
Cattalan, a sculptor and performance artist based in New York, reportedly replied “no problem” when informed about the incident.
The first and second editions of the artwork sold for $120,000 (£95,640) when they were on display at Miami Art Basel.
