If you tried to sell it as such, yes.
And neither are the folks they’re buying from.
People try to reproduce art all the time (I’ve done it many times and it’s a bit more of the “nailed it!” meme than actually nailing it). It’s only a crime if:
So, knock yourself out and tape up that banana!
Don’t be surprised to find that the old saying is really true: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
So it’s only forgery if I try to sell it? If I did it just for my own personal viewing (assuming that I found pleasure in looking at a banana duct taped to a wall) then it’s not considered forgery?
I’m reminded of an argument I had with the teacher of a course in Aesthetics I took in college. I maintained that if someone painted something that was, at least to my eyes, indistinguishable from an original painting then it was just as pleasing as the original and, to me, just as valuable. The teacher said that if I knew it was a copy I should not be able to consider it as pleasing as the original.
The Kill Room with Uma Thurman, 2023
Yep. Producing works of visual art that are manual reproductions for your own pleasure and education is not only legal, it’s generally part of the curriculum in art school. I’ve still got a copy of Goya’s Saturn Eating His Children that I did in college.
Now, I imagine I could sell that reproduction as long as I made sure that the buyer knew that I produced it and not Goya. The part I’m not sure of is whether you could tape two bananas to the wall, call it “Comedian (after Cattelan)”, and sell it as your own work.
Call it “Clown (after Cattelan’s Comedian)”, for extra safety.
But Cattelan’s lawyers may throw banana peels in your path. 
It’s one banana, Michael, how much could it cost. 6.5 million dollars?
I saw an article quoting the artist who created Comedian
“It’s a provocation that invites us to reflect on the value of art and the dynamics of (this) market, pushing us to question what this work says about us as viewers,” [Maurizio] Cattelan told Italian daily La Repubblica.
He also said of the piece
“It’s the market that has decided to take a banana stuck on the wall so seriously. If the system is so frail to slip on a banana skin, maybe it was already slippery,” Cattelan added.
Three bucks at Etsy! This’ll really class up the joint.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1530352616/duct-taped-banana-sticker-funny
Well, if his goal was to get us to conclude that modern art is a scam and its patrons and aficionados are suckers, he succeeded.
On a conceptual level, I really don’t have a big issue with the banana duct taped to the wall and calling it “comedian” (harkening back to the old show biz term ‘top banana’, meaning the comedian most in demand). It’s cute. There’s a ‘message’ and we get it. If it was a charity auction benefitting some worthy cause, we’d probably even applaud its sale at seven figures. It’s just when I look at its sale in the private sphere where talented artists are competing for the top spots that I take issue. It’s not unlike the millionaires that throw a ball around on tv. Sure, there’s some limited entertainment value there, but nowhere near the societal resources that are being dedicated to them. Those resources could be used SO MUCH more effectively elsewhere to improve humanity’s condition.
I kind of figured it was more riffing on the idea of a guy slipping on a banana peel and windmilling his arms while making a woah-OAH-oah-OAH-oah sound.
“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience,” Mr. Sun was quoted as saying.
I mean, that’s just one performance artist outdoing the original one, in my opinion. Metaphors of crass consumerism! (unintended I think)
A wise man once said, in contemplation of a piece of modern art, “It’s not art. it just looks like art!”
A dog licking its genitals, an airplane crash, or a Buddhist monk setting himself on fire also “evoke an emotion, or start a conversation, or inspire a thought”. Are they art? or more to the point of “Banana on Wall, (mixed media)” is it a emotion, thought or conversation that means anything? “It’s art, but is it good art?” A 7 figure price, or strangers discussing it on a message board, do not in and of itself make it good art.
I’m reply sure that nobody can define what good art is.
Well, to quote another wise man, “I know it when I see it.”
They’ll probably have to replace the duct tape as well, so it’ll be Comedian of Theseus.
For comparison’s sake, I saw a composition in the Art Institute of Chicago’s modern wing last year, meant to be a portrait of the artist’s lover, that consisted of about 175 lbs of wrapped penny candies in a big pile. The contents of the pile are not fixed, as patrons are permitted to take from the pile and it must be occasionally replenished.
I saw that too, and it really stuck with me! The diminishing candy represents the body of his lover wasting away from AIDS.