Student eats banana artwork at Seoul museum

A student has eaten a ripe banana from an artwork on display at a museum in Seoul, South Korea. Although the student was interrogated after this incident, no charges were brought against him for destroying the artwork.

He explained that he was hungry, as he went out without having breakfast. That is why he opened and ate the duct-taped banana. Then he put the banana peel back there. He himself is studying art.

According to the BBC report, the artwork created by Maurizio Cattelan is called 'Comedian'. The artwork featured a ripe banana duct-taped to the wall.

According to local media reports, a new banana replaced the former immediately after the incident. 

The museum did not respond to the BBC's email for comment. However, they told the media that they will not demand any compensation from the student. Even so, the art of the exhibition is changed every two or three days.

While the student, No Hui-su, was eating the banana, a friend who was with him captured the moment in a video. Within a minute he had eaten the banana. His friend later posted the video on social media.

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In the video, he is seen walking towards the banana saying 'Excuse me' to the visitors present. The people were speechless when he started eating bananas from the artwork. After eating, he stood still for a while beside the banana peel and came near to it again.

Seoul National University student No Hui-su later told local media that he saw the artwork by artist Maurizio Cattelan as a rebellion against authority. But there can also be another rebellion against the rebellion.

He said, "A damage to artwork can also be seen as another type of artwork. I thought that would be interesting... wasn't it put there to be eaten?"

In response to this occurrence the artist said, "No problem".

This is not the first time the artist Catalan has used ripe bananas in his artwork. A similar incident happened earlier as well. In 2019, a performance artiste named David Datuna ate a banana from his artwork worth USD 120,000 which was sold in Miami, USA. No formal complaint had been made regarding the destruction of the artwork.