David Geffen—the American record executive, billionaire and leading art collector—is being sued over the rightful ownership of a $78.4m sculpture by Alberto Giacometti. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday (4 February), and the plaintiff behind it is none other than the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun—best known in the art world as the winning bidder of “the world’s most expensive banana” (Maurizio Cattelan’s 2019 conceptual work Comedian) at a Sotheby’s auction last year.
The Giacometti work at the centre of the suit is the bronze Le Nez (1947), one of the star lots from another Sotheby’s auction in 2021—the first of two sales dedicated to Linda and Harry Macklowe’s art collection. The suspended figure with an elongated nose and a shape reminiscent of a gun sold for a hammer price of $60m, slightly below the lot’s $70m-$90m estimate. (The Macklowe collection was briefly the most valuable single-owner art collection to ever sell at auction, until Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s collection sold for $1.5bn in a single night at Christie’s months later).
Sun revealed himself as the buyer of the sculpture after the sale and said he would donate the work to ApeNFT, a blockchain-based fractional-ownership fund reportedly founded by Sun and Xiong but owned by a relative of Sun’s, according to the lawsuit. However, Sun claims he never donated or transferred the ownership of the work, instead allowing the bronze to be virtually exhibited online.
Sun alleges that the Giacometti sculpture was stolen from him by Xiong Zihan Sydney, an art adviser who aided him in the Sotheby’s sale. Xiong allegedly misrepresented herself as a part of the ApeNFT organisation, which she falsely claimed was the owner of Le Nez, and sold the sculpture to Geffen in January 2024. The cryptocurrency founder claims that Xiong went as far as to forge his signature on documents and arrange for the sculpture to be taken to New York. Xiong allegedly traded Le Nez for two works of art owned by Geffen valued at $55m, plus $10.5m in cash for a total of $65.5m. Sun’s lawyers claim that the value of the work has only “risen, substantially so” since Sotheby’s sale in 2021. (Between 2021 and 2023, the art market contracted significantly, particularly for work priced higher than $10m, according to the Global Art Market Report published by UBS and Art Basel.)
While Sun says he expressed interest in selling Le Nez around 2023, he wanted to do so for more than the $78.4m (with fees) he had paid for it and was not willing to sell for less. The lawsuit portrays Sun as a somewhat green figure in the art world, claiming that he, unlike Geffen, “is a relatively new collector of major art and is not as familiar with the modern and contemporary art market”. Because of this alleged unfamiliarity with those segments of the market, Sun relied on Xiong’s expertise, his lawyers claim, but did not give her authority to negotiate the selling of Le Nez. Sun claims he asked her to alert him if she knew of anyone interested in paying more than $80m for Le Nez.
In November, Sun told The Art Newspaper that he had purchased Le Nez on the recommendation of an art adviser as a strategic move. The year 2021 was a good time to invest in art, Sun said, adding that he was currently “more into conceptual and virtual art rather than traditional art”.
According to Sun’s lawsuit, Geffen is still in possession of Le Nez and refuses to return the sculpture. Sun’s lawyers demand that Geffen “either must restitute it or pay very substantial damages” to Sun.
Geffen’s lawyer, Tibor Nagy, told The Art Newspaper in a statement that the lawsuit is “a desperate and bizarre attempt to hide reality. Mr. Sun received two paintings and $10.5m for the sculpture he knowingly sold. After trying and failing to sell the paintings, he now wants to retrade the deal based on the implausible claim that his own art advisor and liaison to the art world duped him.”
Sun has made headlines for splashy auction purchases before, but he was thrust into the spotlight last year after spending $6.2m on Cattelan’s banana in November during another Sotheby’s sale. He ate the banana during a press conference less than a week later. Sun is also a major investor in the World Liberty Financial crypto project, backed by US President Donald Trump.
