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Chinese crypto businessman eats his controversial $6.2 million banana art piece

Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun eats a banana artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape in Hong Kong on Friday after buying the provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan at a New York auction for $6.2 million.
Peter Parks
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AFP via Getty Images
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun eats a banana artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape in Hong Kong on Friday after buying the provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan at a New York auction for $6.2 million.

Chinese cryptocurrency businessman Justin Sun, who last week purchased a $6.2 million art piece consisting solely of a banana duct taped to a wall, ate the banana on Friday in a move he bragged about on social media.

"Many friends have asked me about the taste of the banana," Sun wrote in a post on X alongside a video of him eating the multimillion-dollar Maurizio Cattelan piece called Comedian.

"To be honest, for a banana with such a back story, the taste is naturally different from an ordinary one. I could discern a hint of what Big Mike bananas from 100 years ago might have tasted like," said Sun, the founder of the cryptocurrency platform Tron.

Big Mike bananas — a common translation of the flavorful Gros Michel banana variety — were once ubiquitous and have now become virtually impossible to find.

Sun wrote that as thanks to Shah Alam — the 74-year-old Bangladeshi fruit stand employee who originally sold the banana for just 25 cents — he would purchase 100,000 bananas to be distributed for free to Alam's customers.

Speaking to the New York Times, however, Alam noted a number of logistical issues with Sun's proposal.

The profit on bananas is relatively low, Alam told the paper — only about $6,000 on a purchase of 100,000 bananas. And Alam is an employee of the fruit stand, not its owner.

His salary of $12/hour during his 12-hour workday, which affords him a shared basement apartment in the Bronx, would not be affected by a bulk novelty sale.

This is not Sun's first venture into multimillion-dollar bids. In 2019, he won a $4.8 million bid to have lunch with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. In 2021, he put up $28 million to be among the first passengers on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft, though that trip was ultimately canceled.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Alana Wise
Alana Wise covers race and identity for NPR's National Desk.