Crypto Entrepreneur Justin Sun Eats Maurizio Cattelan's $6.2 Million Banana Artwork "Comedian"

Nov 29, 2024, 09:04 AM

Justin Sun, the founder of the TRON cryptocurrency platform, purchased an artwork titled "Comedian" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan for $6.2 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York. The artwork consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall, which was originally bought for $0.35 from Shah Alam, a 74-year-old fruit vendor who earns $12 an hour. Upon learning that the banana he sold became part of a multimillion-dollar artwork, Alam began to cry. Sun announced plans to buy 100,000 bananas from the vendor as a gesture of appreciation. Days after the purchase, Sun live-streamed himself eating the banana during a live speech in Hong Kong, stating, "It's really quite good." He described the act as representing a cultural phenomenon bridging the worlds of art and cryptocurrency.