'Hungry' Student Eats Banana Artwork, Previously Sold For $120,000

A ripe banana taped to a wall as part of an art installation was gobbled down by a South Korean art student, who said he ate the fruit because he was "hungry."

The student named Noh Huyn-soo was at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul when his hunger got the best of him, and he ate the fruit, which was part of an artwork previously sold for $120,000.

The viral artwork called "Comedian" was created by artist Maurizio Cattelan as part of his exhibition, "WE," according to BBC.

Noh was filmed nonchalantly peeling the banana and devouring the fruit in front of other museumgoers Thursday. He then taped back the banana peel to the wall and struck a pose before walking away.

The Seoul National University student later said he ate the banana because he was "hungry" and had skipped breakfast that day.

Following the incident, the museum replaced the banana with another one and said they would not be claiming damages against the student.

Staff members at the museum replace the banana every two days as per Cattelan's directions, due to which they had bananas readily available, Insider reported.

Noh later told local media outlet KBS that he saw the artwork as a sign of rebellion.

"There could be another rebellion against the rebellion," he was quoted saying. "Damaging an artwork could also be seen as an artwork, I thought that would be interesting ... Isn't it taped there to be eaten?"

Cattelan said he had "no problem at all" after Noh ate the fruit.

In a similar incident, performance artist David Datuna had also eaten the banana used for Cattelan's viral artwork in 2019.

Datuna had pulled the banana off a wall at Art Basel in Miami and was captured on camera eating the fruit in front of a shocked audience.

"It tasted like $120,000. It was delicious," Datuna said, according to Vogue.

The outlet reported that the artwork's value was raised to $150,000 after two editions of the artwork were sold at $120,000.

Galerie Perrotin, the gallery behind the sale, said Cattelan first came up with the idea in 2018.

"Back then, Cattelan was thinking of a sculpture that was shaped like a banana," Galerie Perrotin said in a statement. "Every time he traveled, he brought a banana with him and hung it in his hotel room to find inspiration. He made several models: first in resin, then in bronze and in painted bronze (before) finally coming back to the initial idea of a real banana."