Hong Kong crypto entrepreneur and art collector Justin Sun has filed a new 100-page legal response in his ongoing lawsuit against megacollector David Geffen over Alberto Giacometti's sculpture *Le Nez* (1949/1965). Sun claims his employee Xiong Zihan Sydney stole the $78.4 million artwork—which he bought at Sotheby's New York in 2021—and sold it to Geffen without his knowledge. Geffen counters that Sun is experiencing "seller's remorse" and that the lawsuit is a sham. Sun's latest filing alleges that Geffen paid $2 million "under the table" to dealers David and Cole Tunkl to secure the piece, and reveals that Xiong has been detained in China since February at the Dezhou Detention Center.
The case matters because it pits two of the world's most prominent collectors against each other in a high-stakes legal battle over a modernist masterpiece, raising questions about provenance, ownership, and the ethics of private art sales. The dispute also highlights the opaque role of intermediaries like art advisors and online platforms such as APENFT, which Sun founded and allegedly donated the work to—a claim he now disputes. The outcome could set precedents for how courts handle contested sales involving offshore entities and digital assets, and further expose the often-shadowy mechanics of the ultra-high-end art market.