Maurizio Cattelan's Famous €5.8 Million Banana Artwork Stolen Again From French Museum
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A duct-taped banana worth €5.8 million keeps getting stolen and eaten — perfectly exposing how conceptual art's value lives entirely in social consensus, not the object itself.
Institutional Theory of ArtSocial Construction of ValueBaudrillard's SimulacraVeblen Goods
Theory Briefing
- Maurizio Cattelan's banana taped to a wall sold for €5.8 million, yet the 'art' is just a certificate of authenticity — the object is replaceable.
- The theft from a French museum repeats a pattern: previous versions were eaten or stolen, yet the artwork's market value never collapses.
- This cycle reveals the Institutional Theory of Art in action — value is assigned by collective belief, not intrinsic properties of the banana.