Viral banana artwork: Crypto entrepreneur buys $6.2M, then eats it

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun bought Maurizio Cattelan’s famous banana pipe mural for $6.2 million. But it didn’t last long, as the Sun just ate it up.

This marks the third time someone has eaten Italian in public the art of the artist’s mindtitled “The Comedian,” which is simply a banana taped to the wall. This time, it happened days after Sun won the artwork at the Suthu art auction in New York.

Sun, who founded the Tron blockchain in 2017, was filmed eating the infected fruit during a press conference in Hong Kong on Friday. To commemorate the occasion, he made a slightly tongue-in-cheek comment to X about the taste of infected fruit.

VIRAL BANANA ARTWORK DUCT-TAPED TO WALL SELLS FOR $6.2M

“To be honest, with a banana with such a back story, the taste is naturally different from the usual. “I can imagine what Big Mike’s bananas from 100 years ago tasted like,” he wrote.

The winner is not meant to buy the banana itself. The auction house previously told FOX Business that the winner actually gets a roll of duct tape, one banana, a certificate of authenticity and official instructions for placing the work, the auction said.

With the latest purchase, founder and art consultant of The Agency Art House Arushi Kapoor told FOX Business that Sun is “bridging the gap between the crypto world and the traditional art scene,” which he said “has traditionally maintained high barriers to traditional irreverence. collectors. .”

Now, as more tech fans come into the fold, he said, “it encourages inclusion and increases participation.”

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“The Sun seems to understand the concept of ‘Comedian’ very well as its commentary on the importance of marketing and consumerism in modern culture,” said Kapoor. “There is talk now that he has promised to buy 100,000 bananas from the first seller, who sold them for pennies – and adds to the artistic discourse about consumerism, but also returns to the origin of the work of meat, the seller sold it.”

Kapoor added that “it remains to be seen whether Sun will continue this trend or completely redefine the activity by not replacing the eaten banana.”

Sotheby’s hailed the artwork, which is estimated to be between $1 million and $1.5 million before bidding, as one of the 21st-century pieces of art that “provoke scandal, provoked thought, and advanced the very definition of modern art.”

Although the artwork is small, measuring 20 cm by 20 cm by 5 cm, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art for the Americas, David Galperin, described it as “one of the most influential and powerful works of art of the last century.”

Justin Sun, founder of Tron, prepares to eat a banana that is part of the artwork “The Comedian” by artist Maurizio Cattelan, which Sun bought for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York, during a press conference in Hong Kong on November 29, 2024. (Justin Chin/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

In 2019, when Catelán’s “Comedian” debuted in Miami, he was met with confusion and in some cases, amusement. But the piece received worldwide attention following its $120,000 price tag at Art Basel. A social media debate soon followed about the nature and value of art.

In December 2019, when the Comedian installation was unveiled at Perrotin’s booth, Suthu said the crowds were so overwhelming that the artwork had to be removed before the show ended. All three editions of the artwork were sold.

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“Hugely admired, and hotly debated — and devoured not just once, but twice — is a masterpiece of stories shared across the globe,” Sotheby’s wrote.