I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It.

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I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It.

Updated Nov 29, 2024, 1:47 p.m. Published Nov 29, 2024, 12:51 p.m.

Justin Sun walked into the room flanked by his usual entourage of bodyguards and advisers and made his way to the stage. Behind him, a banana was duct taped in position on a white wall. On either side, two blank-faced men in white shirts and black aprons stared into the sea of cameras and smartphones. I wondered what they were thinking.

As for what I was thinking, it was something along the lines of how ridiculous this all was. To give some background, on Nov. 21 Tron founder Justin Sun paid a whopping $6.2 million — including $1 million in commission — at an auction at Sotheby’s in New York for an artwork called Comedian . The work, created by modern artist Maurizio Cattelan in 2019, is the aforementioned banana duct taped to the wall.

The reaction among many observers was the typical one seen whenever anyone spends a large sum of money on modern art: bewilderment, a bit of disgust, an eye roll. I think people who don’t like art can still appreciate the skill that goes into paintings or sculptures. If works like Comedian or Unmade Bed have any artistic merit, I cannot comprehend it. Tron’s public relations team assured me art is subjective.

But it’s memecoin season and things with absolutely no intrinsic value are very in right now. So it was hardly surprising that shortly after buying the banana-and-duct-tape combo, Sun said he planned to eat it.

This has happened twice before: Once in 2019, when a performance artist took it from the Art Basel in Miami shortly after it was sold for $120,000. Then again by a South Korean art student at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul in 2023.

It doesn’t affect the artwork. The banana and duct tape are replaced regularly anyway.

The consumption took place at the 5-star Peninsula Hotel in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong on Friday, a stone’s throw from some of the city’s most notorious doss houses.

The crowd consisted of a mix of journalists and people from the art and crypto industries, Tron and Sotheby’s employees and so-called … Read More