Watch: Man eats banana artwork he purchased for Rs 52 crore in auction
Hong Kong: Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who made headlines earlier for purchasing a banana taped to a wall — an artwork he bought for $6.2 million (Rs 52.4 crore), has now eaten the fruit.
Standing in front of journalists and influencers gathered at a luxury Hong Kong hotel on Friday, Sun devoured the pricey banana as he called the piece “iconic” and drew parallels between art and cryptocurrency.
“It's much better than other bananas. It's really quite good," Sun said after eating the fruit. Interestingly, each attendee at the event was given a banana and a roll of duct tape as a souvenir.
Sun outbid six competitors during a recent Sotheby’s auction to claim the piece. “This is not just an artwork,” he said earlier. “It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and cryptocurrency community."
While Sun gulped down millions of dollars in a few seconds, the vendor who sold the banana for the auction expressed disappointment over not receiving a substantial amount from the viral artwork. According to a report in The New York Times, the banana was originally sold by Shah Alam, a 74-year-old fruit seller, to the artist.
Although the banana art was intended as satire, Alam remains baffled by how it fetched such an exorbitant price. “Those who bought it, what kind of people are they? Do they not know what a banana is?” he questioned.
许多朋友问我这根香蕉的味道如何。老实说，对于一根有如此故事的香蕉，味道自然和普通香蕉不一样。我品尝出了一种100年前大麦克香蕉的味道。🍌 pic.twitter.com/ddo8pEjatx
— H.E. Justin Sun 🍌 (@justinsuntron) November 29, 2024
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Three company directors held in Rs 100-crore investment fraud in Kochi
Kochi (Kerala) (PTI): Police on Sunday arrested three directors of a firm accused of cheating hundreds of investors of over Rs 100 crore through a fake investment scheme linked to agricultural tourism here, officials said.
The accused were identified as Muraleedharan, Ashik Murali and Akhil Murali, all natives of Thrissur.
The arrests were made by the Kalamassery police in connection with a fraud involving ATCOS (Agri Tourism Cooperative Society), a firm headquartered at Pathadipalam here.
Police said the company had promised high returns by collecting investments from the public in the agricultural tourism sector, but allegedly cheated hundreds of people and fled with the money.
ATCOS was registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act and operated 13 branches across various districts in Kerala, besides a branch in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, officials said.
When investors failed to receive their promised returns or the invested amount, complaints were filed with the police.
Officials said around 54 cases have been registered against the firm in 32 police stations across the state, including 29 cases at the Kalamassery police station alone.
Following instructions from Kochi City Police Commissioner K S Mahesh Kumar, a special investigation team was formed under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Shehensha and Thrikkakara ACP Manoj Kumar.
The team traced the accused to an apartment in Amala Nagar in Thrissur, where they had been hiding after secretly renting the flat, officials said.
The bank accounts of the accused have been frozen, and steps have been initiated to trace their assets, officials said.
Police also conducted a raid at the company’s office at Pathadipalam and seized several documents related to the case.
The accused were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kalamassery, which remanded them to judicial custody and sent them to Kakkanad jail.
Police said they would seek the custody of the accused for further interrogation as the investigation continues.
