US$120,000 banana wall at Art Basel vandalised with Jeffrey Epstein message
- Piece, titled Comedian, has been in spotlight after fruit duct-taped to wall was first sold to collector for high price, then eaten by performance artist
- Man arrested after writing that disgraced US financier ‘didn’t kill himself’ on exhibit in red lipstick
The now-iconic white wall that once held a duct-taped banana at Art Basel Miami Beach was vandalised on Sunday afternoon, forcing exhibitors to use white cardboard to cover up the writing in red lipstick.
The banana, which has attracted hundreds after it was sold to an art collector for US$120,000, was replaced with the phrase “Epstien [sic] didn’t kill himself”, written with red lipstick.
The scene confused some who were in the gallery, most who assumed it was just another performance.
“This is the gallery where anyone can do art, right?” the man is heard saying in a video provided to The Miami Herald when a security guard confronted him.
Sacha Medici, 24, was strolling inside the Miami Beach Convention Centre, hoping to spot Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s banana art piece, titled Comedian, which was eaten by a performance artist on Saturday afternoon.
“When we got to the wall, it was white and empty,” Medici said. “We saw this guy live streaming … and he starts writing on the wall and I was like, ‘No way, there’s no way this guy is writing’.”