What Happened: Sun, who outbid six others at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Nov. 20, consumed the pricey fruit at a news conference in Hong Kong on Friday.
The artwork, named “Comedian,” was initially presented by Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan at the Art Basel Fair Miami in 2019.
“To be honest, for a banana with such a back story, the taste is naturally different from an ordinary one,” Sun posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The banana showcased at Sotheby’s was procured for 35 cents from a New York City fruit vendor. Sun has expressed his intention to buy 100,000 more bananas from the original vendor. He ate a replacement banana bought in Hong Kong at the event.
“The real value is the concept itself,” he said, equating “Comedian” to digital assets such as NFTs.
“This conceptual artwork can be assembled and disassembled anywhere and at any time conveniently and in any place in the world,” he further elaborated.
Why It Matters: This event mirrors previous performances by artist David Datuna in 2019 and a South Korean university student in 2023.
Earlier this year in October, Sun was appointed as the Prime Minister of Liberland, a self-proclaimed micronation that operates on a cryptocurrency and blockchain-based economy.
This appointment came after a notable career setback for him. In April 2023, Sun was removed from his position as Grenada's Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) due to an SEC lawsuit filed against him.
He held the ambassadorial role since November 2021 and represented Grenada at the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference. Despite this, he still refers to himself with the title H.E. ("His Excellency") on his official X account.
Price Action: At the time of writing, TRX, the native cryptocurrency of Tron, was trading at $0.2041, reflecting a 1.23% increase over the past 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
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