In one of the most expensive hotels in Hong KongSun, 34, ate the banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech in which he praised the artwork as “iconic” and drew parallels between conceptual art and cryptocurrencies.
And he said Justin Sunwho was born in China, said after tasting it for the first time: “It’s much better than… Banana The other. “It’s really good.”
The conceptual work created by the Italian artist was sold Maurizio Cattelan Titled “comicAt a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week, Sun was among 7 bidders.
Sun said he felt “stunned” in the first 10 seconds after winning the auction, before realizing “this could become something big”.
In the ten seconds that followed, he decided he was going to eat Banana.
“Eating it (the banana) at a press conference could also become part of the history of the artwork,” he said on Friday.
The edible creation sparked its debut at a gallery Art Basel 2019 in Miami Beach controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art – a stated goal of Cattelan.
In a ballroom at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, two men dressed as auction house employees stood in front of a featureless wall, a yellow banana the only color standing out from the photo.
Sun said he only recently decided to make a bid for the artwork, adding that he had “stupid questions” such as whether the banana had decomposed and how to evaluate the work.
Sun and the banana stand owner
The banana was reportedly purchased for less than $1 from a fruit stand on the Upper East Side Manhattanand is staffed by Shah Alam, who works for $12 an hour. When Alam, 74, learned from a New York Times reporter that the banana had been resold as a work of art for millions of dollars, he cried and said, “I am a poor man… I have never had this kind of money before; before”.
Sun told the New York Times that Alam’s response was “touching.”
Sun later pledged to buy 100,000 bananas from Alam’s booth, and said the bananas would be distributed around the world “as a celebration of the beautiful connection between daily life and art,” adding that he hoped to visit Alam’s booth in person one day.
Attendees of Friday’s event each received a roll of duct tape and a banana as souvenirs. “Everyone has a banana to eat,” Sun said.
