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New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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100k? That cost 100k? The likeness is not bad (which is not helping the appeal), but just speaking artistically nothing else about that statue is even acceptable, particularly for 100k.
It looks like a pole frame with newspaper padding for the body, an actual t shirt and jeans drapped over that body that has so much glue saturated into them to harden them that they look like they are soaking wet, literal stickers for the "FREEDOM" letters on the shirt, an actual microphone prop shoved into a mannequin hand bolted on the end of the arm pole, actual shoes on the feet, multiple colors of metallic spray paint, and a thick clear coat sealant. Like $200-300 dollars in materials for the entire body, tops. How did you spend 100k on this? Did you pay a 100k licensing fee for use of his likeness or something? This feels like a tax write-off scam or something. What a fucking waste of money, regardless.
It isn't a good likeness. The face is way too big.
I'd have to assume a gross overvaluation of the labour provided. Presumably he's setting his own value, as nobody commissioned the thing, he hired himself at I don't know... 1500 dollars a second or something, and then also had a team of middle-schoolers do the actual work by the look of it.
You think that's the work of an entire team?
Well I did say middle-schoolers... They're doin their best, man.
I don't think they are.
Yeah it looks like paper mache with a layer of resin and spray paint over it.