It’s not every day that a banana makes headlines – and certainly not for its price of millions. But that’s exactly what happened when artist Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Comedian’ – a banana stuck to the wall – sold for Rs 52 crore ($6.2 million) at a Sotheby’s auction. Yes, you read that right – over six million dollars for a single piece of fruit! The piece, raising eyebrows, turned into the beginning of a conversation about the absurdity of the modern art world. But it wasn’t until Justin Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur known for his role in cryptocurrencies, made the move that Bananas really made headlines.
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Sun, who beat out a few other bidders to get the artwork, decided to make the moment even more ridiculous (in a good way) by eating a banana at a press conference in Hong Kong, the BBC reports. “It’s much better than other bananas,” he said jokingly about how a simple piece of the fruit can be worth lakhs. The act was both a stunt and a statement, with Sun saying that by eating the banana, he was contributing to the piece’s history.
Watch Justin Sun’s video below:
This banana was sold by Shah Alam, a 74-year-old immigrant originally from Bangladesh, for just 35 cents (Rs 29) at his fruit stand in New York. Alam, who works long hours at his stand to sell fresh produce, had no idea he was part of an art revolution. When he heard how much his banana got in the auction, he couldn’t believe it. “I am a poor man. I never had this kind of money,” Alam told The New York Times, clearly in shock.
Despite his newfound fame (and the huge amount of money attached to his banana), Alam still seemed a little dazed. “Don’t they know what a banana is?” He asked in disbelief how such a simple thing could be given so much importance.
Justin Sun decided to show Alam some love by buying 1 lakh bananas from his stand.
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These bananas will be distributed free across the world.
