Taped bananas ‘worth £24.8m’ appear in village

Bananas have appeared taped to various locations in a village, in an imitation of an artwork that sold for $6.2m (£4.9m) at a New York auction.

Artist Impro, who frequently uses Sonning in Berkshire as a location for his work, claimed responsibility.

He said the sale of his “masterpiece” bananas would enable Sonning’s residents to get a “new church roof”.

The original work, titled ‘Comedian’ by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan, was bought by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun in November.

Impro, who lives in Oxfordshire, said: “Enough of the japes and pranks! This time I have graced Sonning with bona fide, international standard fine art worth in total £24.8m at auction.

“The sale of just one of these masterpieces would be more than enough to get them their new church roof and to Sonningians [sic] I would say, ‘you’re welcome!'”

Previous works by Impro include a phone, postbox and door affixed to the side of Sonning Bridge.

He also installed a large, red Google Maps pin on A4155 Reading to Henley road in 2014.

His post box work drew international attention when it caught the eye of famous spoon-bender Uri Geller.

Mr Geller said at the time: “I have never seen anything like this anywhere in the world. It’s a new one on me.”