A museum in eastern France on Sunday reported to police the theft of a banana that forms a core part of a multimillion-dollar artwork by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan.The missing fruit – which was taped to a wall to form the provocative work by Cattelan called “Comedian” – was noticed by a guard on Saturday to have gone missing.An iteration of the artwork was bought by Chinese-born cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun in 2024. He forked out US$6.2 million for the work, then days later ate it in front of cameras in Hong Kong.The Pompidou-Metz museum in Lorraine, which is a branch of the famous Pompidou Centre in Paris, said in a statement it had lodged a criminal complaint for theft against persons unknown.It also said it had replaced the banana.The artwork’s perishable banana centrepiece is replaced every three days to keep it contemporary.In July last year, a visitor to the museum ate the fruit. But guards quickly intervened and stuck up a replacement banana.