GOING BANANAS

Crypto Guy Eats His $6.2 Million Duct-Taped Banana Artwork

The art installation was sold last week at a Sotheby’s auction.

One could interpret, as its artist intended, the $6.2 million banana-duct-taped-to-a-wall as an absurd piece of art. The crypto entrepreneur who bought it made it a very expensive snack. Tron founder Justin Sun ate the banana at a press conference in Hong Kong on Friday after purchasing the right to display Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” installation last week. “Eating it at a press conference can also become a part of the artwork’s history,” Sun said at the press conference, according to the BBC. Sun had promised to eat the banana after winning the auction, which was conducted by Sotheby’s. The banana, which is meant to be regularly replaced, has been eaten twice before, though never by someone who has purchased the rights to the installation. The hefty sum Sun paid was news to the New York fruit stand vendor who sold the 35-cent banana, and cried upon hearing the eventual winning bid. “I am a poor man,” Shal Alam, 74, told The New York Times. “I have never had this kind of money; I have never seen this kind of money.” “Those who bought it, what kind of people are they?” he asked the Times reporter. “Do they not know what a banana is?”