On Friday, Justin Sun, the Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur who purchased Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, the banana duct-taped to a wall, for $6.2 last week – made good on his promise to eat it.
Immediately after buying the controversial artwork at Sotheby’s in New York, Sun announced on X that he would not only pay for it with the cryptocurrency he created, TRON, but also consume it.
In front of journalists at one of Hong Kong’s most expensive hotels, Sun chowed down on the banana after giving a speech praising the artwork as “iconic.” He also drew comparisons between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.
“It’s much better than other bananas,” Sun told reporters. “It’s really quite good.”
The 34-year-old said he was “intrigued” by the work and admitted that he had “dumb questions” about whether the banana rotted.
Sun was one of seven bidders—including crypto-enthusiast collectors Ryan Zurrer and Cosomo di’ Medici—battling for Comedian. He said he was overcome with “disbelief” in the first few seconds after realizing he had won the lot, but soon realized “this could be something big.” He said he decided to eat the banana in the following 10 seconds after that.
“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” Sun said on Friday. During the stunt, he compared conceptual art to decentralised blockchain technology and NFT art. “Most of [conceptual art’s] objects and ideas exist as [intellectual property] and on the internet, as opposed to something physical,” he added.
Earlier this week, Sun—who is an avid art collector—revealed that he’s investing $30 million in cryptocurrency project World Liberty Financial, backed by Donald Trump, the US president-elect.
This is not the first time Cattelan’s artwork, which has three editions, has been eaten. In 2019, one edition that sold for $190,000 at Art Basel Miami was wolfed down by performance artist David Datuna. “Art performance by me. I love Maurizio Cattelan artwork and I really love this installation. It’s very delicious,” he posted on Instagram.
Last year, a South Korean student was filmed ripping the banana off the wall at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul before eating part of it. He then re-stuck the peel to the wall. When asked why he did it, the student said he was hungry and argued that “damaging a work of modern art could also be [interpreted as] artwork.”
Each banana comprising Comedian, which is represented by a certificate of ownership, is replaced every two to three days when it is displayed.
Before it was sold at Sotheby’s last Wednesday, a fresh banana was purchased for 35 cents from a street vendor near the auction house for the installation. A GoFundMe page has since been set up for the fruit stand seller, a 74-year-old immigrant named Shah Alam, and so far it’s raised more $10,000 for him.
At the press conference in Hong Kong on Friday, Sun gave everyone in attendance a banana and a roll of duct tape as a souvenir.