Tensions Ran High as Charlie Kirk Memorial Sculpture Was Unveiled in Times Square

Shouting and a shoving match erupted as Italian-American artist Sergio Furnari unveiled his unpermitted life-size bronze memorial to slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Times Square on Thursday, according to video footage posted by Al Jazeera and other media reports.

The sculpture was uncovered at 2:23 p.m., the same moment the Turning Point USA founder was assassinated one year ago at a speaking event at Utah Valley University in front of some 3,000 people. According to Getty, the sculpture was displayed on the back of a pickup truck that departed immediately after the unveiling.

The artist self-funded the sculpture, to the tune of $100,000, he said, telling the Guardian that he aimed to raise millions of dollars to take the statue on tour; what he found, instead, was that “People are cheap, man… it’s disgusting how cheap they are.”

Kirk’s alleged killer, 23-year-old Tyler Robinson, has been charged with aggravated murder. A Utah judge ruled on September 1 that there was enough evidence to proceed with the case. The next court date is set for October 23.

Prominent among the Kirk supporters on the scene on Thursday was right-wing activist Jake Lang, who served four years in prison for participating in the Janury 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

In a Fox News interview this week, the artist said that when people first suggested the monument, his response was, “No way. I cannot get involved with politics.” But the shoddy way he says Kirk’s widow and parents were treated, he said, catalyzed him to think again. No matter your politics, Furnari said, “you should have a little bit of empathy.” (Kirk famously said in 2022, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new-age term that… does a lot of damage.”)

Kirk was widely mocked online after his death, especially for dying by gunshot while having previously said, in the wake of a school shooting, “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”

The artist told Fox, “It’s a monument to Charlie, but it’s a monument to freedom of speech.” Notably, right-wing activists hounded many people out of their jobs and harassed them, including with death threats, after they opined unsympathetically online about Kirk’s assassination, with vice president J.D. Vance urging his followers to report people to their employers. 

Speaking about Kirk, Furnari added, “He would have been a great president.”