George Floyd and Breonna Taylor sculptures to be auctioned

Sculptures in the likeness of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, whose deaths from police violence in 2020 rocked the United States, will be auctioned for charity after being displayed in New York, Sotheby's announced Thursday.

 

The sales will take place online until December 17 and the profits will be donated to the associations founded by the families of the two victims, We are Floyd and The Breonna Taylor Foundation, said Sotheby’s.

 

Both statues are the work of artist Chris Carnabuci, and the one representing Breonna Taylor is the work of Brooklyn-based Nigerian painter Laolu Senbanjo (or Laolu NYC), known for having worked with Beyoncé.

 

The golden statue representing the face of the African-American George Floyd, who died at 46 years old on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis, by asphyxiation during his arrest by the police, had been vandalized by a jet of paint while it was exposed in Union Square, in Manhattan. Since cleaned up, the 6-foot-tall sculpture is estimated to be worth between $100,000 and $150,000.

 

The work in effigy of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed at age 26 in Louisville, Kentucky, on the night of March 12-13, 2020, is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000. It is decorated with motifs from the Yoruba culture, which inspires Laolu Senbanjo.

 

The death of George Floyd and the images of the police officer pressing his knee on his neck, two months after the death of Breonna Taylor, had caused a shock wave in the United States and triggered widespread protests and a national debate on racism and police violence against African-Americans.