A BILLIONAIRE has paid over $6 million for the bizarre artwork of a banana duct-taped to a wall – but he won’t even get the banana.
Cryptocurrency tycoon and Chinese collector Justin Sun bought the 2019 creation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan at a Sotheby’s auction on Wednesday in New York.
The piece titled “Comedian” had an estimated value of $1.2 million, with bidding beginning at $800,000.
It had previously sold in 2019 for just $120,000 before Sun paid an extortionate $6.24 million for it this week.
Auctioneer Oliver Barker called the pieces “iconic” and “disruptive,” before being shocked at the reality that he was selling a banana at an auction – “Words I never thought I’d say,” he joked.
In a press release, the new owner of Comedian defended the price he paid for the artwork after outbidding six others.
He said: “This is not just an artwork. It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community.
“I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
But, despite the obscene amount of money he paid, Sun will have to construct the artwork himself – receiving just a roll of duct tape and a fresh banana.
He will also get a certificate of authenticity and instructions on how to install the piece himself.
Sotheby’s confirmed to CNN before the auction that neither the tape nor the banana are the originals used in 2019.
Sun has paid over $6 million for the concept of the artwork.
A spokesperson for the auction house said in an email: “Comedian is a conceptual artwork, and the actual physical materials are replaced with every installation.”
The new owner of Comedian has admitted that he plans to eat the artwork,
Sun said in his press release: “In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honouring its place in both art history and popular culture.”
At previous installations of the artwork, people have eaten the banana with one student from the Seoul National University in South Korea saying he did so because he was hungry.
The Chinese-born crypto tycoon and billionaire is also the prime minister of a European micronation.
Justin Sun, 34, is the founder of TRON, a blockchain network and is known as a king in cryptocurrency.
He oversees TRON’s cryptocurrency USDD stablecoin and owns BitTorrent protocol, a file transfer platform, and the Poloniex exchange, a crypto platform.
From 2021 to 2023, Sun was Grenada’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization.
In a blockchain election, Sun was declared as the Speaker of Congress and acting Prime Minister of the micronation of Liberland in Eastern Europe.
He is estimated to be worth at least $1.4 billion.
Sun has been at the centre of several controversies, having been the subject of a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that he and his companies took part in securities fraud.
It was claimed that the entrepreneur manipulated TRON prices while artificially inflating trade volumes to lure in investors.
In 2020, former TRON workers filed a civil lawsuit against Sun making claims “ranging from fraud to harassment to whistleblower retaliation.”
He removed the fruit, ate it, and taped the peel back onto the wall, a museum spokesperson confirmed after the incident last year.
A similar incident happened at the French art gallery Perrotin when David Datuna, a performance artist took the fruit off the wall and devoured it in front of hundreds of attendees.
Datuna later attempted to justify the move as a piece of performance art rather than vandalism.
Wednesday’s auction was the first time people could bid on the artwork.
Sotheby’s head of contemporary art for the Americas, David Galperin celebrated that finally “the public have a say in deciding its true value.”
He said the pieces “balances profound critical thought and subversive wit” and is a “defining work for the artist and for our generation.”
Galperin added: “If at its core, ‘Comedian’ questions the very notion of the value of art, then putting the work at auction… will be the ultimate realization of its essential conceptual idea.
“The public will finally have a say in deciding its true value.”
