Collector who bought $8.3 million fruit art offers to buy 100,000 more bananas from street vendor

NEW YORK – A week after a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur bought an artwork composed of a fresh banana stuck to a wall with duct tape for US$6.2 million (S$8.3 million) at an auction, the man, Mr Justin Sun, announced a grand gesture on the social platform X. He said he planned on purchasing 100,000 bananas – or US$25,000 worth of the produce – from the Manhattan stand where the original fruit was sold for 25 US cents.

But at the stand at East 72nd Street and York Avenue, outside the Sotheby’s auction house where the conceptual artwork was sold, the offer landed with a thud against the realities of a New York City street vendor’s life.

It would cost thousands of dollars to procure that many bananas from a Bronx wholesale market, said Mr Shah Alam, the 74-year-old employee from Bangladesh who sold the original banana used in Comedian, an absurdist commentary on the art world by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. And it would not be easy to transport that many bananas, which come in boxes of about 100.

And then there is the maths: The net profit from the purchase of 100,000 bananas by Mr Sun – who once bought a non-fungible token of a pet rock for more than US$600,000 – would be about US$6,000.

“There’s not any profit in selling bananas,” Mr Alam said.

As an employee who makes US$12 an hour during 12-hour shifts, he pointed out that any money would go to the fruit stand’s owner, not him.

“I am not personally familiar with the exact cost of the bananas,” Mr Sun wrote in a text message sent shortly after a stunt on Nov 29 when he ate the original banana during a news conference at a Hong Kong luxury hotel. “Through this event, we aim not only to support the fruit stand and Mr Shah Alam but also to connect the artistic significance of the banana to everyone.”

Reached by phone, the stand’s owner, Mr Mohammad Islam, 53, who goes by Rana, said he would split any profit between himself, Mr Alam and the six other people he employs at his two fruit stands. No one had contacted him about any such purchase, though, he said.

Mr Islam had learnt from a reporter of Mr Sun’s plans, which included offering the bananas from the stand worldwide free to anyone who showed identification, according to his post on X.

There are quieter efforts to support the vendor. At least two online fund-raisers have collected more than US$20,000 for Mr Alam.

Working in the rain on Thanksgiving Day, Mr Islam’s brother, Mr Mohammad Alam Badsha (who is not related to Mr Alam), said he would welcome the bulk purchase. But it would have little tangible impact, Mr Badsha said, either on the daily life of the fruit vendors, or on the gulf laid bare by the US$6.2 million banana and the stand that sold it for a quarter.

“It’s definitely an inequality,” he said in Bengali.

He added a Bangladeshi idiom: It was, he said, the difference between heaven and hell. NYTIMES