SerpApi.Org
The artist behind a $100K statue of Charlie Kirk set to go up in Times Square is surprised that nobody wants it.
New York-based artist Sergio Furnari spent $100,000 of his own money to depict the late conservative influencer right before he was shot in the neck this past September. The sculpture is set to go up in Times Square on September 10, the first anniversary of Kirk’s death.
Images of the sculpture went viral when it was first unveiled in July, though not for positive reasons. Many online commenters felt that putting the Kirk statue in the center of deeply liberal New York City would result in it being quickly and horribly vandalized.
Despite the press the statue generated, Furnari has struggled to find a buyer.
“Things financially are a total, absolute nightmare,” he told The Guardian for a piece published on July 20. “It’s like wow. People are cheap, man. You know, people talk, talk – I know lots of people out there, and everybody’s so cheap. You know, like, it’s disgusting how cheap they are.”
Furnari broke his foot while working on the statue after he tripped over a roll of tape in his studio. The unfortunate accident caused him to quip, “Is it cursed? Maybe. I don’t know.”
Furnari told The Guardian that despite sinking “all my money” on building the statue, he isn’t a “fan” of the late activist.
“Like one thing that I couldn’t stand about him while he was alive [was] when he was talking about Palestine. He’d say: ‘Oh no, Palestine doesn’t exist.’ I thought: ‘Well, this guy must be out of his mind,'” he said.
Asked why he built the statue anyway, he said, “The same reason why Michelangelo did the Pietà, or Michelangelo did the David, or Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Why? Just to commemorate a moment, you know, a person.”
It seemed Furnari also thought there would be profit in it. He told The Guardian that he expected the statue would start a bidding war between unnamed wealthy donors, but that never materialized.
Instead, he set up an online fundraising campaign hoping to hit a goal of $150,000. Per The Guardian, the fundraiser has brought in only $1,400.
It also brought Furnari a flood of emails from people pledging to urinate on his likeness of Kirk when it goes up in Times Square.
