In 2019, Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian was the most talked about artwork at Art Basel Miami Beach, consisting of just a banana taped to the wall of Galerie Perrotin's booth.
Related: The Story Behind Cattelan's Banana
Three Certificates of Authenticity of the perishable concept artwork with a detailed installation description were sold for a total of $390,000.
"One day I woke up and said: 'The banana should be a banana'", Cattelan explained his inspiration for Comedian to Artnet at the time. But now, Cattelan's American artist colleague Joe Morford said that Cattelan copied the idea from his artwork Banana & Orange, which he conceived and copyrighted back in 2000.
Related: The 10 Most Scandalous Artworks
Banana & Orange consists, as the name suggests, of a banana and an orange, each attached with a strip of masking tape on a green background surrounded by masking tape. According to Morford, pictures of it have been on Morford's website since 2008 and on social media since 2015.
Cattelan counters that such a work can hardly be protected with a copyright, and Banana & Orange also has many additional elements that Comedian lacks.
However, the federal court in Miami sees the accusation of plagiarism as well-founded, which is why Joe Morford can now take legal action against Cattelan.
