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Maurizio Cattelan’s controversial artwork, a banana duct-taped to a wall, sold for an astonishing $6.2 million (£4.9m) at Sotheby’s in New York on Wednesday—four times its pre-sale estimate.
The winning bidder, Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, outbid six other competitors to acquire the piece, titled Comedian.
“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience,” Sun said.
The banana, possibly one of the most expensive fruits ever sold, cost just $0.35 earlier in the day, according to the New York Times.
First unveiled in 2019, Comedian quickly became a viral sensation and sparked widespread debate about the definition of art. The installation, which has toured globally, includes instructions for replacing the banana whenever it rots.
The fruit has been consumed twice as part of artistic interactions. In 2023, a South Korean art student ate the banana while it was on display at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art. The museum replaced it shortly afterward. In 2019, a performance artist removed and ate the banana after the piece sold for $120,000 at Art Basel in Miami. The banana was promptly replaced without incident.
Justin Sun, who runs the Tron blockchain network facilitating cryptocurrency transactions, remains a controversial figure. Last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of fraud, alleging he artificially inflated the trading volume of TRX, Tron’s cryptocurrency token—a charge he denies.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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