Justin Sun, purchaser and consumer of Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan, a US$6.24 million duct-taped banana sold by Sotheby’s New York last year, has once again appeared in the art news cycle. The 34-year-old Chinese crypto executive has filed a lawsuit against American record mogul David Geffen over what Sun claims is an unauthorized acquisition of Le Nez, a statue by Alberto Giacometti, which Sun purchased back in 2021 for over US$78.3 million, by Geffen.
The lawsuit, filed in the federal trial court of the Southern District of New York on 4 February by Sun, alleges that his former art advisor, Xiong Zihan Sydney, stole the Alberto Giacometti and illegally sold it to Geffen without his permission or knowledge. Sun’s attorneys are alleging that Xiong has confessed to not just the illicit sale of the statue but also the forging of Sun’s signature to complete it.
Sun is now demanding that Geffen return the statue to him or pay US$80 million in damages, according to the lawsuit. For their part, Geffen’s lawyer has opposed the premise of the lawsuit, saying that Sun was fully aware of the deal and is simply having “seller’s remorse.”
Chinese crypto-executive Justin Sun ate the world’s most expensive banana, Comedian, having purchased it for US$6.24 million
Justin Sun announcing he purchased Alberto Giacometti's Le Nez (1965) for US$78.4 million in November of 2021
The entire premise of Sun’s case against Geffen rests on the idea that Sun is an inexperienced and naive art collector who is new to the market. His lawyers further insist that Sun did not understand the market and nature of private sales and transactions and was taken advantage of. It further places this blame at the feet of Xiong, who they accuse of fraudulent criminal conduct in this matter.
The story of Le Nez within Sun’s ownership is incredibly confusing and full of contradictions. Central to this is what was meant to occur to Le Nez following its purchase by Sun. When Sun revealed himself as the buyer of the statue, he stated that it would be donated to ApeNFT, a blockchain-based fractional-ownership fund that was allegedly founded by Sun and Xiong in 2021 but owned by a relative of Sun’s.
However, Sun claims he never transferred Le Nez to ApeNFT and instead made Le Nez a virtual exhibit. Later on, in 2023, Sun changed his position once again, claiming that he was interested in selling the artwork and making a profit on it, with his lawyers claiming Sun was only willing to sell the work for at least US$80 million, and that Xiong was tasked with finding a potential buyer.
Justin Sun, pictured here on the third from the right, next to Warren Buffett during a dinner he paid US$4.6 million for
Xiong is accused of misrepresenting herself as part of the ApeNFT organization and that ApeNFT did indeed have ownership over Le Nez. She then stole Le Nez and traded it with Geffen for two pieces of art worth US$55 million and another US$10.5 million in cash, for a total of US$65.5 million, well below Sun’s expectations.
Sun’s lawyers have insisted that Sun never gave this selling authority to Xiong and that she was only authorized to inquire and find potential buyers. Additionally, this deal made between Xiong and Geffen was never disclosed to Sun at any stage, and when the US$10.5 million appeared, Xiong gave Sun US$10 million and claimed it was a deposit for the acquisition of Le Nez, and she took the US$500,000 difference for herself.
Furthermore, Sun’s lawyers claim that since La Nez’s purchase back in 2021, the value had grown significantly, and the amount Xiong traded it for was well under Sun’s demands, who sought an all-cash purchase for the statue and for it to be sold at a profit, not a roughly US$10 million loss compared to the final auction price.
Sun’s lawyers claim he only became aware of the alleged scheme last December when he questioned Xiong as to why the deal with the US$10 million deposit had failed to go anywhere. The actual deal itself between Xiong and Geffen was made between January and March of 2024, meaning that it went under Sun’s radar for around a year.
David Geffen, the current owner of Le Nez is being sued by Sun
On the other side of the lawsuit is David Geffen, a famous American record and movie producer who has released records for bands and singers such as Cher, Elton John, Weezer, and Nirvana. He is also the co-founder of film studio DreamWorks alongside Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
His lawyers claim that Sun was entirely aware of the sale of Le Nez and that Sun planned to trade the statue for the two paintings and US$10.5 million in cash and then resell both paintings for a higher price that would make up for the difference in Le Nez’s worth and the settlement reached between the two groups.
Additionally, Geffen’s lawyers claim that Sun had failed to sell both those paintings and was regretting the deal in the first place and so created this allegation that Xiong lied to him as a “desperate and bizarre attempt to hide reality.” When Sun’s lawyers originally approached Geffen to return the artwork, Geffen declined, which has seemingly led to this legal battle that neither side seems to want to back down from.
Geffen’s lawyer, Tibor L. Nagy, added that in the art industry, deals are executed between intermediaries all the time and that if Sun is unhappy about the deal that was made, it’s still no cause to go after Geffen. Interestingly, there don't seem to be any criminal or civil charges being levied against Xiong as of yet, even though she is the one being accused of facilitating this transaction.
David Geffen (on the left), with Michael Jackson and Madonna in 1991
A tweet sent out by Sun during the Christie's Beeple auction in 2021
It seems that Geffen’s lawyers are trying to poke holes in Sun’s story that he was this innocent art collector whose inexperience allowed his art advisor to pull the wool over his eyes and abscond with his cash and property. Key in that will be showing that Sun has been involved in auctions for a not inconsiderable period, with him participating and buying fairly modern and flashy works.
In addition to Sun's purchase of Comedian, back in 2021, in Christie’s first-ever auction that accepted cryptocurrency, Justin Sun participated and was just slightly beaten at the auction to take home Everydays: The First 5000 Days when he bid US$60 million for it.
However, Sun is not without his controversies, including pressuring cryptocurrency news source Coindesk into taking down an article that was critical of Sun’s purchasing and consumption of Comedian, which led to the resignation of Coindesk’s editorial chair. Sun is also accused of various improprieties regarding financial and advertising regulations.
Finally, it's interesting to note that this case bears similarities to the Bouvier Affair. In 2015, Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev started a series of lawsuits alleging that his art dealer, Swiss national Yves Bouvier, defrauded him by misrepresenting the original price of his works. In that case, all the legal jurisdictions involved dismissed the lawsuits, and an agreement was reached outside of court.