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Crypto chief buys a banana for $6m at contemporary art auction

Justin Sun, founder of blockchain network Tron, outbids six others for Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’

A woman looks at artist Maurizio Cattelan’s piece of art "Comedian" which sold for more than $6 million in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP
A woman looks at artist Maurizio Cattelan’s piece of art "Comedian" which sold for more than $6 million in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP
Thu Nov 21 2024 - 09:55

A cryptocurrency entrepreneur paid $6.24 million (€5.9 million) for a banana taped to a wall at a contemporary art auction in New York, more than four times its presale estimate.

Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian”, a banana stuck to a wall with duct tape, was sold to Justin Sun, the founder of cryptocurrency platform Tron, on Wednesday evening.

Sun outbid six others at a Sotheby’s New York auction to purchase the banana at a much higher price than its presale estimate of $1 million to $1.5 million.

The entrepreneur said on Wednesday that “Comedian” is “not just an artwork; it represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community”.

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He added that he planned to eat the banana in the “coming days ... as part of this unique artistic experience, honouring its place in both art history and popular culture.”

Sun’s Tron blockchain network facilitates a large volume of the world’s USDT stablecoin transactions. In March last year, the entrepreneur proposed buying collapsed Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse for $1.5 billion to “integrate it into the Web3.0 world”.

The same month, he was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulently inflating the trading volumes of TRX, Tron’s crypto token. Sun denies the charges.

In the packed auction room on Wednesday, a crowd of people craned their necks and tried to take photos of the banana, which a Sotheby’s auctioneer described as “disruptive” and urged the crowd not to let the opportunity “slip away”. The bidding lasted just over six minutes.

The $6.24 million sale marked the first time that “Comedian” had appeared at auction, after first making a splash at Miami’s Art Basel fair in 2019 before travelling the world. The banana is one of an edition of three alongside two artist proofs.

Sotheby’s said that the buyer would receive an accompanying certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

The banana sale comes as Sotheby’s and other auction houses have tested demand this week for multimillion dollar auctions, as a chill in the art market has hit brokers. In August, Sotheby’s posted an 88 per cent drop in its core earnings for the first half and a 25 per cent decline in auction sales.

Cryptocurrency prices have soared in recent weeks, as investors bet that the administration of US president-elect Donald Trump will be positive for the industry.

Bitcoin alone has hit a series of record highs since the November 5 election and was trading at more than $94,000 on Wednesday evening in New York.

Other pieces sold by Sotheby’s this week include a $65.5mn Monet water lily painting. This year, the auction house also sold a 150mn-year-old stegosaurus fossil known as “Apex”, which was bought by Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin for $44.6 million. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024

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