• A banana central to Maurizio Cattelan's artwork "Comedian" was reported stolen from a museum in France.
• This is the second theft incident involving the fruit, which is replaced every three days.
• The artwork has gained notoriety since its debut in 2019, questioning art's value and perception.
• In 2024, the artwork was purchased for $5.2 million by cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who later ate it publicly.
• Mahmoud Guedira, the museum’s representative, confirmed the theft led to a criminal complaint filed.

A museum in eastern France reported the theft of a banana integral to Maurizio Cattelan's multimillion-dollar artwork "Comedian" on May 31. The fruit, which was taped to a wall as part of the installation, was discovered missing by a guard on Saturday. The Pompidou-Metz museum, a branch of the famous Pompidou Centre in Paris, lodged a criminal complaint for theft against unknown persons and has since replaced the banana, according to SCMP, Le Monde, and India Times.

This incident marks not the first act of damage to the conceptual piece; in July of the previous year, a visitor consumed the banana, leading the museum to quickly replace it. Cattelan expressed disappointment that the spectator only ate the banana and not the tape. However, since the current situation involves an unidentified thief, the museum opted to pursue legal action for this specific theft, believing it to be a matter of respect for the artwork, as reported by Le Monde and India Times.