Crypto mogul buys conceptual artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall for $6.2M – then eats it in front of the press

12/04/2024 / By Belle Carter

Justin Sun, a 34-year-old Chinese-born entrepreneur who founded the Tron Blockchain Foundation, bought a conceptual artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall for $6.2 million. He then ate the fruit and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.

The artwork is titled “Comedian” and was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Sun was among the seven bidders for the artwork and the rights to recreate it at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week.

Sun chomped down on the banana after hailing the work as “iconic” during his speech at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.

“It’s much better than other bananas,” Sun said in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after his first bite. “It’s really quite good.”

He said he felt disbelief in the first 10 seconds after he won the bid, before realizing “this could become something big.” He then quickly decided he would eat the millions-worth banana.

“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” he added.

He further compared the conceptual art to non-fungible tokens (NFT) and decentralized blockchain technology. NFTs are blockchain-based tokens that represent a unique asset like a piece of art, digital content or media, and can be considered an irrevocable digital certificate of ownership and authenticity for a given asset, be it digital or physical.

“Most of its objects and ideas exist as (intellectual property) and on the internet, as opposed to something physical,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sun has already been receiving unfavorable feedback lately for investing $30 million in President-elect Donald Trump-backed crypto venture World Liberty Financial (WLFI). This sizeable amount made him the project’s largest investor.

“The U.S. is becoming the blockchain hub, and Bitcoin owes it to @realDonaldTrump! TRON is committed to making America great again and leading innovation. Let’s go!” Sun wrote on X.

A day later, the crypto initiative announced it had welcomed Sun as an adviser to the firm.

“Justin’s insights and experience will be instrumental as we continue to innovate and grow. Welcome to the team, Justin!” WLFI also posted on X

A few days later, Sun denied that the investment was an attempt to influence Trump or American politics.

“We are apolitical,” Sun told AFP in an interview. “Me [serving] as advisor also contributes a lot of value… I can be a great bridge for traditional financial and the [decentralized finance] industry.”

$6.2M banana bought from a Manhattan vendor for 25 cents

According to reports, the banana used in the conceptual edible artwork was bought from a fruit stall on Manhattan’s Upper East Side for 25 cents. Sun has expressed that he would be buying 100,000 pieces of the fruit amid the backlash he received when he immediately ate it after he won the bid.

The stall staff Shah Alam, who works for $12 an hour, learned from a New York Times reporter that the banana was resold as artwork for millions of dollars.

“I am a poor man,” Alam, 74, told the news outlet. “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.”

Following this, Sun pledged to buy 100,000 bananas from the same vendor and said that they would be distributed worldwide, as “a celebration of the beautiful connection between everyday life and art.”

“I hope this initiative will bring his story to a broader audience and, one day, I look forward to visiting his fruit stand in person to express my gratitude again,” Sun said.

Alam responded, saying that acquiring so many bananas would be incredibly costly and logistically difficult. He added that the profit margin on such a purchase would be almost negligible, the New York Times reported.

“There’s not any profit in selling bananas,” he added.

According to the report, the fruit stand’s owner, Mohammed Islam, said that no one from Sun’s team had reached out to contact him or vet the banana plan.

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