A man ate $120,000 duct-taped banana art: 'I really love this installation. It's very delicious'

Hannah Yasharoff | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Man ate $120,000 banana stuck duct-taped to the wall at Art Basel Days after artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana work went viral for $120,000, a man ate it off the wall as an "art performance."

Days after Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana work went viral, the art piece saw a splitting new development: A man ate the real-life $120,000 banana stuck to the wall at Art Basel in Miami.

Video footage showed artist David Datuna approaching the exhibit, as others had done to take photos. He peeled the banana off the wall, announced he was participating in "performance art" and dubbed himself a "hungry artist."

"I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation," he later captioned an Instagram post. "It’s very delicious."

"Are you kidding?" Gallery Director Peggy Leboeuf can be heard asking moments later. "This is so stupid."

"No," Datuna replied.

Leboeuf told BBC Datuna was asked to leave but not arrested. "We can go further, but I don't think we will," she added. USA TODAY has reached out to Art Basel for further comment.

Don't worry: The banana was replaced after the incident.

Original story: A duct-taped banana art work is selling for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami

The first edition of the banana art, titled "Comedian," was already sold from Emmanuel Perrotin's gallery, Galerie Perrotin, which has locations in New York and Asia, the site reports, and more editions also have been selling.

The second edition sold to a man at the annual art festival, the site reports, and Perrotin and Cattelan agreed to raise the price to $150,000 before selling the third edition to a museum. USA TODAY has reached out to Galerie Perrotin for comment.

CNN previously reported that there are no clear instructions for buyers on whether the bananas start to decompose. The Miami Herald reported that owners can replace the banana as needed.

Before the reported sales, Perrotin told CNN that bananas are "a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor," adding that Cattelan turns normal objects into "vehicles of both delight and critique."

Contributing: Sara M. Moniuszko, USA TODAY