BANANA ARTWORK SELLS FOR $6.2 MILLION
Known as the taped banana, Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” artwork has sold for a whopping $6.2 million.
The amount was four times higher than pre-sale estimates.
The artwork sold at auction at Sotheby’s in New York and was bought by Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Sun outbid six other rivals to eventually buy the Italian’s artwork on Wednesday.
Sun was quoted as saying “in the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience”.
The taped banana was first unveiled to the public in 2019. It became an instant viral sensation and caused massive debates over what art is.
The artwork has travelled around the world and it comes with instructions on how to replace the banana whenever it rots. While on display, the banana has been eaten twice already.
The BBC reports that Justin Sun runs the Tron blockchain network, which facilitates some cryptocurrency transactions. Last year the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused him of fraud, saying he had falsely inflated trading volumes of TRX, Tron’s crypto token. Sun denies the charges.
Image credit: The Wall Street Journal