Wikileaks wants life-size bronze statue of Julian Assange

Artist's impression of how the statue might look

Julian Assange and the Wikileaks team have taken to Twitter to publicise a Kickstarter campaign to build a life-size bronze statue of the holed-up whistleblower. The project, described as a "monument to courage" features likenesses of Assange, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden standing on three chairs, with a fourth empty chair "for us".

It hopes to raise 100,000 through Kickstarter but with 20 days to go on the project has only raised just shy of 20,000. If completed the artwork will be showcased in "cities around the world", its creators said.

The Wikileaks Twitter account, which Julian Assange posts from, has tweeted about the account seven times in the past three months, most recently retweeting a post on 10 December calling for more donations.

According to the Kickstarter listing, the sculpture will be the work of artist Davide Dormino and made made in Tuscany, Italy. Donations will fund the bronze casting and transportation of the art.

A report in the Independent accused Julian Assange of using Twitter to "spearhead" a campaign to build a statue of himself. The Wikileaks Twitter account reacted angrily, saying that a retweet "does not equal Assange 'spear heading' [sic] a funding drive".

The Kickstarter page explains that the work is not intended as a "homage to individuals" but to "courage and the importance of freedom of speech and information."

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Wikileaks wants life-size bronze statue of Julian Assange