UK Culture Ministry’s Challenges Under New Prime Minister, Charlie Kirk Statue with No Funding, and More: Morning Links for July 21, 2026
The sculptor says his fundraising campaign has reached only $7,660 after spending more than $100,000 on the memorial.
- New York artist Sergio Furnari plans to unveil his statue of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Times Square on September 10, though fundraising has netted only $7,660 against an initial $150,000 goal.
- Furnari invested roughly $100,000 in materials, describing the sculpture as an effort to "glorify and to exercise the First Amendment, this freedom of speech," with Kirk depicted clutching a microphone on a shirt emblazoned with "Freedom."
- "Things financially are a total, absolute nightmare," Furnari lamented, adding that he recently broke his foot in his studio while working on the project and had hoped for millions in donations.
- Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 before his death on September 10, 2025, in Orem, Utah, and was frequently criticized for remarks opponents described as bigoted, including comments about Black pilots.
- Despite disagreeing with Kirk's views on Palestine, Furnari maintains the statue is "blessed," while social media responses have been uniformly hostile ahead of the planned New York City debut.
21 Articles
21 Articles
He expected to make a million dollars with it, and so far he has raised eight thousand.
UK Culture Ministry’s Challenges Under New Prime Minister, Charlie Kirk Statue with No Funding, and More: Morning Links for July 21, 2026
The UK Culture Ministry will tackle several issues under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, a new video game lets you play as a New York artist, and more.
The Independent
The Independent (US)Sculptor spent $100,000 making lifesize Charlie Kirk statue but has no takers
New York artist Sergio Furnari spent his own money on steel and resin monument to the slain Turning Point USA founder and had assumed he would be able to recoup the cost
Sergio Furnari has made a representation of the influencer on the right and wants to expose it at Times Square. Rain of criticism and announcements of boycotts But the sculptor emphasizes: "I do not share all his political ideas, I have created the statue for the same reason why Leonardo da Vinci painted the Gioconda"
$100,000 Life-Size Charlie Kirk Statue Falls Short of Sculptor's Million-Dollar Hopes
A broken foot. A cursed feeling. Just a fraction of the money he'd hoped for. New York sculptor Sergio Furnari spent $100,000 (£74,000) building a life-size statue of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, convinced it would become a multi-million-pound project. Instead, it has left him wondering whether the whole project is jinxed. Is the Statue Cursed? Furnari's Doubts Grow as Support Stalls Furnari, an Italian-born artist based in New York…
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