This banana may have just become the world’s most expensive snack.
Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun has eaten the fruit he purchased as part of Maurizio Cattelan‘s Comedian for a cool $6.2 million. Documented by a news conference in Hong Kong, Sun used the televised nibble to illuminate what he feels are similarities between Cattelan’s artwork and cryptocurrency, per the BBC. Everyone in attendance was given an unofficial banana and roll of duct tape, Comedian‘s only two components, to commemorate the occasion. Sun said, “Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history . . . It’s much better than other bananas.”
“Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” Sun said of the event. “It’s much better than other bananas.”
This latest piece of Comedian‘s viral journey comes on the heels of news that the banana used in the auctioned artwork was sold by New York City street vendor Shah Alam for a mere 25 cents, according to The New York Times. Afterward, Sun declared on X that he would “buy 100,000 bananas from [Alam’s] stand in New York’s Upper East Side,” and that those bananas would be distributed for free worldwide.
Maurizio Cattelan’s work debuted at Art Basel in 2019, causing a sensation.
Han Haidan/Getty Images
As for the artwork itself, Comedian went viral the moment it debuted at Art Basel Miami in 2019, quickly turning into one of social media’s favorite memes. The duct-taped banana immediately sparked conversations about the legitimacy of the work and what the art world chooses to imbue with value. According to the artist, Comedian‘s origins are much less complicated.
“There’s no big story behind it: I was playing with bananas for months, trying to figure out the best way to use it, either for a [photo] shooting or a work,” Cattelan told Robb Report in 2020. “I tried it in metal and plastic, but it never convinced me enough to be shown . . . Then I came out with the decision to simply present it as it is, instead of re-presenting it. And it worked well, much more than I would ever expect!”
And Sun would agree that the banana worked well as a snack, too.
