The Sculptor Behind the Viral Times Square Charlie Kirk Statue Thinks It Might Be ‘Cursed’

The Italian sculptor behind the viral Charlie Kirk statue set to be unveiled in Times Square in September says the project has become a nightmare—leaving him down six figures, nursing a broken foot, and fielding messages from people promising to urinate on it.

Sergio Furnari, the Sicilian-born, New York-based artist behind the life-sized statue of the conservative commentator, says he poured roughly $100,000 of his own money into constructing the 6 ft. 5 steel-and-resin monument—meaning literally no one commissioned it. 

In the piece of “art,” Kirk is carved holding a microphone and donning a “FREEDOM” shirt, just as he did in his final moments. The statue’s bronze-gold finish could only have been inspired by Yogurt from Spaceballs. 

This monstrosity, the Charlie Kirk Monument, is set to be unveiled in New York’s Times Square on September 10. It was handcrafted by Italian sculptor Sergio Furnari. I give it 20 minutes.

[image or embed]

— Hoodlum 🇺🇸 (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) July 14, 2026 at 12:58 PM

Furnari insists he wasn’t even a hardcore listener of the podcaster—noting Kirk was “out of his mind” on the issue of Palestine’s literal existence. Instead, he claims he was simply inspired to “exercise the First Amendment,” support Charlie Kirk’s wife Erika, and “glorify democracy.” He also clearly assumed MAGA world—a demographic that gags for any opportunity  to crony up —would throw millions into his crowdfunding campaign to cover the tab.

Instead, the fundraiser has limped along to a whopping $8,000. At that rate, he’ll be raising money until Charlie Kirk’s bicentennial! 

Furnari, unsurprisingly, is bitter. He publicly lamented that while political commentators generate endless noise on Twitter, virtually none of Kirk’s actual followers have opened their wallets to pay for the physical tribute. It turns out digital outrage doesn’t translate into cold, hard cash for independent artists. Who could have possibly predicted this?

And because the universe has a wicked sense of irony, the woes didn’t stop at financial ruin. While grinding away in his studio, Furnari managed to break his own foot after tripping over a roll of tape. Naturally, this string of disasters gave Furnari the audacity to compare his artistic struggle to Michelangelo sculpting David or Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa. Yes. Because when I think of Renaissance masterpieces that defined culture for centuries, my mind immediately jumps to an uncanny-valley bust of a podcast host in Midtown New York.

Things only got worse once the statue went viral last week. Rather than receiving accolades from art patrons, Furnari’s inbox became a biohazard zone. He was inundated with vitriol from critics, many explicitly promising to use the monument as a pit stop for their golden retrievers the second it hits the pavement in Manhattan on September 10.

One social media user even thanked him because “public bathrooms are hard to find in NYC!” 

When asked to reflect on the absolute cascade of disasters that have plagued this self-funded project, Furnari offered a philosophical diagnosis. “Is it cursed? Maybe. I don’t know,” he told The Guardian. He later tried to pivot, claiming the statue was actually “blessed” – because nothing says “blessed” quite like a fractured metatarsal, a near six-figure loss, and the threat of public urination. Undeterred, Furnari says the backlash has only inspired him to make future statues out of bulletproof stainless steel. Nothing more American than making our statues bulletproof.