Justin Sun, the crypto-tycoon who bought Maurizio Cattalan’s infamous banana artwork last year, is suing the billionaire film producer David Geffen over a $78 million (£62 million) Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) sculpture. Sun claims the piece was stolen from him by a rogue assistant and sold to Geffen without his knowledge.

The Hong Kong-based businessman has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against his former employee Xiong Zihan Sydney, who is accused of admitting to the fraud in May 2024.

Xiong acted as an advisor to Sun, assisting him with the purchase of the Giacometti statue from Sotheby’s New York auction of the Macklowe collection in November 2021 for $78.4 million (£62.9 million). Le Nez was conceived by the Swiss sculptor between in 1947 and 1949, and cast later in 1965.

The founded of Tron blockchain had planned to donate Le Nez to APENFT Foundation, a Singapore-based project focused on investment in non-fungible tokens in the art world. He also expressed interest in possibly selling the artwork for no less than $80 million (£64 million). In 2023, Sun loaned the piece to the Giacometti Fondation for an exhibition in Paris. It was to be returned to an art storage facility in Singapore after the show ended last month.

But according to the lawsuit, Xiong had hatched an elaborate scheme to defraud him “with the intention of pocketing at least hundreds of thousands of dollars for herself.” After finding a buyer for the sculpture, she allegedly moved it to an art warehouse in Delaware without her employer’s consent. Sale documents with Sun’s forged signature were then drawn up, which detailed the exchange of the sculpture for two artworks in Geffen’s collection for a total of $65.5 million (£52.7 million), far below Sun’s target price. A Chinese lawyer known as “Laura Chang” from the Yingke Law Firm was apparently brought in to validate the sale, but her existence remains unconfirmed.

Now Sun is seeking the return of the statue, or $80 million (£64 million) in “substantial damages”. The complaint does not contain allegations that Geffen had any contact or connection with Xiong, but asserts that his team should have spotted  “obvious red flags”. 

Tibor Nagy, a lawyer for Geffen said Sun’s lawsuit is “bizarre and baseless.” He added that “deals get done through intermediaries. If Mr. Sun is now, a year later, unhappy with the deal his intermediary got him, that’s no basis for a claim against Mr. Geffen.”