87 billion won worth of 'Coin Bureau' attached to the wall... Exciting action

"It tastes much better" he said after eating

The installation art piece, famous as 'Banana attached to the wall with tape', was purchased by a conceptual art businessman for a huge sum and became a topic after he ate the banana from the wall.

A Chinese conceptual art businessman, Justin Sun, ate a performance of eating a banana attached to the wall at an event held at the Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel on the 29th (local time) and said with a smile, "It tastes much better than other bananas."

According to foreign media such as AFP and Financial Times (FT), the banana Sun ate that day was not the banana used in the work 'Comedian', which was auctioned for 620,000 dollars (approximately 860 million won) at a New York Sotheby's auction.

Sun received a notice from Sotheby's that he had purchased and installed a banana and industrial tape in the middle of the auction.

The work 'Comedian', first exhibited at the Miami Art Fair in the United States in 2019 by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, was possible because it was a piece of conceptual art.

The idea of 'attaching a banana to the wall' is important in conceptual art, so the owner of the work can eat the banana or replace it with a new one.

Sun raised the performance of eating a banana after the 'Comedian' auction and said, "Eating a banana at a press conference can also be part of the history of this work."

Sun's performance of eating a banana in front of the media and influencers that day was not simply for show.

It was a plan to inform the value and effectiveness of conceptual art.

The value of conceptual art lies in the idea itself, and like that, conceptual art is also a kind of intangible asset.

Sun provided 'Comedian' as a stable coin (an intangible asset issued with a fixed value on existing assets such as dollars) rather than a large sum of money.

Later, in an interview with FT, he said, "Sotheby's was very excited to accept conceptual art as a means of settlement."

Sun was famous for 'Banana attached to the wall with tape' even before it was sold.

Recently, he invested 30 million dollars (approximately 42 billion won) in the conceptual art business 'World Liberty Finance', which is being promoted by Donald Trump's presidential election campaign, becoming the largest investor and making his name known.

Sun said, "After Trump was elected, everyone is interested in the future of conceptual art," and "It is clear that the United States will be the most important place for the development of conceptual art with his leadership."

On the other hand, Sun recently revealed on social media (SNS) that "I bought 100,000 bananas from a vendor on the side of the New York Upper East Side" after receiving the auction for the latest work.

He expressed gratitude to the vendor for selling bananas for 25 cents (about 350 won) as the raw material for the work.

Reporter Hong Min-seong, Hankyung.com, mshong@hankyung.com