Justin Sun, the Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur who bought Maurizio Cattelan’s banana sculpture Comedian for $6.2 million last week, said he wants to “thank” the vendor who sold the fruit. It is also likely that he, too, read the New York Times report about the man who sold that piece of fruit to a Sotheby’s representative for just 25 cents.
Sun says he is now hoping to make some reparations and announced he will purchase 100,000 bananas from the stand to show his appreciation of Shah Alam, who is not the owner of the stand and would not likely see much of that profit.
Outside of the auction house’s headquarters, at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, the street vendor employee who sold the banana was unaware that it would get taped to a wall, credited to Cattelan, and ogled by prospective buyers—as well as millions of viewers around the world who were curious to see just how much someone would pay for it. After a short bidding war between six collectors during Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale on Wednesday, November 20, it sold for more than six times its estimate of $1 million.
Shortly after the sale, Sun, 34, announced he was the buyer during a news conference in Hong Kong. The work, which went viral online after it first debuted at Art Basel Miami in 2019, comes with a certificate of authenticity and installation instructions (it needs to be installed exactly 160 centimeters or 63 inches from the floor, for example).
At a conference held on Friday, November 29, in Hong Kong, Sun ate the fruit, noting that it tasted “much better” than other bananas. “Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” he said.
Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian on view at Sotheby’s. Photo: John Nacion/Getty Images.
This week, the absurdism of not only the conceptual artwork but also the art industry as a whole was brought into sharp contrast when reporters from the New York Times went to interview Alam, who was unwittingly a part of the deal. A 74-year-old immigrant from Bangladesh who works 12-hour shifts outside Sotheby’s and lives in a basement in the Bronx, he reportedly cried when he heard what it sold for.
“Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?” he asked the reporters. “Do they not know what a banana is?”
Suddenly, what looked like a harmless joke making fun of the art world started to look like a woefully out-of-touch prank by elites that was not very funny at all.
Sun has now taken to the social media platform X, saying he plans on purchasing $25,000 worth of fruit from the stand.
“As the owner of a fruit stand in Manhattan’s Upper East Side [sic; Alam is not the owner, but works there], Mr. Shah Alam inadvertently became a crucial contributor to a groundbreaking piece of art,” he wrote. “This banana, far from being an ordinary piece of fruit, has taken on profound cultural and artistic significance.”
Sun added that the 100,000 bananas he purchases will be distributed for free at the fruit stand. “Show a valid ID to claim one banana, while supplies last,” Sun said in the X post. “This is not just a unique event but also a celebration of the beautiful connection between everyday life and art. I hope this gesture will help share the meaning of this special art story with more people.”
An exterior view of Sotheby’s in New York City. Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.
“Alam’s contribution to this extraordinary artwork is indispensable, highlighting the boundless possibilities and value hidden in everyday life,” Sun added. “I look forward to visiting his fruit stand in person to express my gratitude again.”
However, in a follow-up interview with the New York Times in the wake of Sun’s grand gesture, Alam punched some more realistic numbers: It would cost “thousands of dollars to procure that many bananas from a Bronx wholesale market.” Logistically, it would also be very complicated to move 100,000 bananas, which come in boxes of about 100. If they all sold, the profit would not be $25,000, but $6,000.
“There’s not any profit in selling bananas,” Mr. Alam told the New York Times. A GoFundMe for Alam that started two days ago has already blown past its $5,000 goal. Organizations combatting hunger have set up protests outside of Sotheby’s.
Sun, the founder of a cryptocurrency company called TRON, was charged last year by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for selling unregistered securities. That case is still ongoing. The sale of the banana to the crypto investor came during a major rally for the blockchain-based currencies in the wake of the election of Donald Trump, as well as the bitcoin halving that took place earlier this year (which typically creates a bump in value months later).
Just as the banana sold, Sun was reported to be the largest investor in a crypto project backed by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, piling $30 million into what is called World Liberty Financial.
According to the New York Times, the owner of the stand has not yet been contacted by Sun regarding his large purchase of bananas.