{"id":425718,"date":"2024-11-30T05:17:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T05:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=425718"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Crypto-boss-eats-banana-art-he-bought-for-6-2-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Crypto-boss-eats-banana-art-he-bought-for-6-2-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto boss eats banana art he bought for $6.2 million"},"content":{"rendered":"

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Friday fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2 million on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall — by eating the fruit.<\/p>\n

At one of Hong Kong’s priciest hotels, Sun chomped down on a banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech hailing the work as “iconic” and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

“It’s much better than other bananas,” Sun said after getting his first taste.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s really quite good.”<\/p>\n

Titled “Comedian”, the conceptual work created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week, with Sun among seven bidders.<\/p>\n

Sun said he felt “disbelief” in the first 10 seconds after he won the bid, before realising “this could become something big”.<\/p>\n

In the 10 seconds after that, he decided he would eat the banana.<\/p>\n

“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” he said Friday.<\/p>\n

The debut of the edible creation at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art — Cattelan’s stated aim.<\/p>\n

And Sun on Friday compared conceptual art like “Comedian” to NFT art and decentralised blockchain technology.<\/p>\n

“Most of its objects and ideas exist as (intellectual property) and on the internet, as opposed to something physical,” he said.<\/p>\n

– ‘Apolitical’ investment –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Sun this week also became an advisor to World Liberty Financial, a crypto initiative backed by US president-elect Donald Trump, following a $30 million investment.<\/p>\n

He earlier wrote on social media platform X that he was “excited to help make crypto great again in the US” with Trump’s leadership.<\/p>\n

On Friday Sun denied that the investment — which made him the largest investor in the project — was an attempt to influence Trump or American politics.<\/p>\n

“We are apolitical,” Sun told AFP in an interview.<\/p>\n

“Me (serving) as advisor also contribute a lot of value… I can be a great bridge for traditional financial and the (decentralised finance) industry.”<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old crypto businessman was last year charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud and securities law violation in relation to his crypto project Tron.<\/p>\n

Sun has rejected the allegations and the case is ongoing.<\/p>\n

At a function room at the Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong, two men dressed as auction house staff stood in front of a featureless wall with the yellow banana offering the only splash of colour.<\/p>\n

Sun said he only recently decided to bid for the artwork, adding he had “dumb questions” such as whether the banana had decayed and how to value the work.<\/p>\n

The artwork owner is given a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.<\/p>\n

Sun told AFP that his artwork may well benefit from the same kind of speculative craze usually associated with crypto.<\/p>\n

“I think (the price) probably is going to go up even more in the future, just like Bitcoin,” he said.<\/p>\n

hol\/ecl<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Friday fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2 million on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall — by eating the fruit<\/p>\n

-Peter PARKS
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