Art Basel Banana Artist Maurizio Cattelan Triumphs in Copyright Suit

Remember way back in 2019 when some crazy artist at Art Basel Miami Beach duct-taped a banana to a wall and sold it for $120,000? Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan's artwork Comedian, consisting entirely of a banana attached with duct tape to a wall at his gallerist Perrotin's booth, caused an international media ruckus when, against all common sense, people actually bought three editions.

Back then, New Times wrote about the piece, saying, "The fact that the wealthy can blow money on a duct-taped banana should signify there is something deeply wrong with the world," while the New York Post's headline was more succinct: "Art World Gone Mad!"

Visitors, curious and opportunistic alike, flocked to the fair to see the fruity cause célèbre. Vandals scrawled graffiti about Jeffrey Epstein at the Perrotin booth. Artist David Datuna tore the banana off the wall and ate it, then declared the act a work of performance art titled "Hungry Artist." His act has been replicated since, most recently, in Seoul.

Now, the slippery masterpiece is back in the public eye. Cattelan recently defeated a copyright infringement lawsuit from another artist, claiming they had the idea first. Joe Morford, an artist from California, sued Cattelan in 2020, saying the Italian got the idea for Comedian from his 2000 artwork Banana and Orange, which also features fruit duct-taped to a wall.

Presiding over the case in Miami, U.S. Federal District Judge Robert Scola ruled in favor of Cattelan, saying Morford failed to provide sufficient evidence that Cattelan had encountered Banana and Orange prior to conceptualizing and executing his artwork. In his decision, which details Comedian's origins in a similar work he did for New York magazine, Scola wrote, "Comedian simply contains too many differences from Banana and Orange: the banana used, the angle at which it is placed, the method by which it is taped to the background, the background itself, and the exacting standards that Cattelan developed for Comedian's display. To find otherwise would further limit the already finite number of ways in which a banana may be legally taped to a wall without infringing on Morford's work."

You hear that? This ain't no ordinary-ass banana. This one's special.

The decision, which is actually pretty interesting to read, also mentions that Morford copyrighted his piece in 2020 after Comedian had already appeared and that Cattelan gave "sufficient competent evidence supporting his defense of independent creation." (In layman's terms, he came up with it on his own.) We also get a look into the reasoning behind the $120,000 price tag, which was "to further demonstrate its absurdity."

Cattelan's legal team was reportedly pleased with the decision, according to Reuters. Morford, who represented himself in court, could not be reached for comment. It remains to be seen as to whether he will a-peel.

This is not the first time Cattelan has been in court over his art. A sculptor in France who Cattelan had hired to fabricate several wax sculptures sued Perrotin over improper credit. A panel of three judges decided in favor of Cattelan and Perrotin, stating that the authorship of a work of art, especially a conceptual artwork, belongs to the artist who came up with the work, not the person hired to physically create it. (In other words, if Michelangelo told an assistant to sculpt David to his exact specifications, Michelangelo would still get the credit.) The case ended up setting a new legal precedent in France.