New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy

A New York sculptor has been left furious after spending $100,000 of his own money to build a lifesize statue of Charlie Kirk, only to find that no one wants to buy it.

Sergio Furnari, originally from Italy, had hoped the statue of the deceased far-right activist, which he intends to display in Times Square, would raise “millions” of dollars. Instead, he said he has been inundated by messages from people saying they intend to urinate on the sculpture.

To add injury to insult, Furnari recently broke his foot working on the statue, after tripping over a roll of tape in his studio.

“Is it cursed? Maybe. I don’t know,” he told the Guardian.

Kirk, a far-right political figure who served as a sort of Pied Piper for young Republicans through his Turning Point USA foundation, was shot dead in September last year. He was known for his racist and bigoted views, using his podcast to claim that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people” and speculating: “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like: ‘Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’”

Despite, or perhaps because of, such beliefs, Kirk became a hugely celebrated and influential figure in Maga circles. In New York City, one of the most diverse, and Democratic, cities in the US, Kirk is far less popular.

Furnari said he did not agree with Kirk on “certain issues”.

“I wasn’t a fan of Charlie,” he said. “Like one thing that I couldn’t stand about him while he was alive [was] when he was talking about Palestine. [Kirk would say]: ‘Oh no, Palestine doesn’t exist.’ I thought: ‘Well, this guy must be out of his mind.’”

Instead, Furnari said he made the statue in an effort to “glorify and to exercise the first amendment, this freedom of speech” – although at points during the conversation, Furnari also said he made it to support Charlie Kirk’s wife; to “glorify democracy”; and to “commemorate a person”.

Sergio Furnari with his statue of Charlie Kirk. Photograph: Sergio Furnari

He later added: “Why am I making the statue? 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’s also clear, however, that Furnari, despite no one having commissioned him to make the statue, was hoping to make money. He said he had expected unnamed wealthy figures to donate to him – he spent $100,000 on steel, resin and labor – but that has not come to pass.

In desperation, Furnari set up an online fundraising campaign, hoping to raise an initial $150,000, but potentially millions of dollars, which he said would allow him to take the statue on tour. As of Thursday, he had raised $1,400.

“I was thinking that it was going to resonate with the world, with whoever, but man, people are strange out there,” he said. “Meaning like, nobody is really coming up with support, especially financial support. So far I’ve spent all my money on this.”

Regardless of his broken foot and light wallet, Furnari said he did not really believe the Kirk statue was cursed. “The statue is not cursed. The statue is blessed,” he said, in spite of all available evidence – but he has certainly been left angry.

“Things financially are a total, absolute nightmare. 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’s latest plan is to place the statue in Times Square on 10 September – the anniversary of Kirk’s death. He hopes that will drum up interest, and maybe allow him to recoup some of his costs.

Until then, Furnari is left with a 6ft 4in statue of a renowned racist, which he has spent $100,000 making, and which no one wants to buy. Maybe it is cursed after all.