A cryptocurrency entrepreneur from China has fulfilled his pledge to consume the banana from a $6.2 million (£4.9 million) piece of art that he purchased last week.
At Sotheby’s auction house in New York, Justin Sun outbid six other bidders to acquire Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 piece Comedian, which was a banana duct-taped to a wall.
At a news conference in Hong Kong, he ate the fruit by using the occasion to compare cryptocurrencies to the artwork.
Before exhibitions, the banana was frequently changed, and Mr. Sun purchased the right to show the piece along with instructions on how to swap out the fruit.
The two previous people to eat it were a South Korean student in 2023 and a performance artist in 2019, although neither of them paid any money, much less $6.2 million.
The 34-year-old acknowledged that he had “dumb questions” about whether the banana rotted, but he said he was fascinated by the job.