{"id":406983,"date":"2026-02-04T07:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406983\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:32:12","slug":"sculptor-holds-trump-statue-hostage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/406983\/","title":{"rendered":"sculptor holds Trump statue hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a foundry in the hills of Ohio lies a colossal bronze statue of President Trump that was recently coated in gold on the orders of a consortium of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

It is a work of art by the sculptor Alan Cottrill showing Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, standing and punching the air moments after he survived a would-be-assassin\u2019s bullet.<\/p>\n

It is also a hostage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018Oh don\u2019t worry Alan, we\u2019ll pay you, we\u2019ll pay you,\u2019\u201d Cottrill said of his patrons, a group of 16 cryptocurrency enthusiasts who commissioned the statue to honour President Trump.<\/p>\n

But just as Michelangelo sometimes found himself funding the redecoration of the Sistine Chapel, Cottrill feels he has been carrying the cost of an enormous sculpture of Trump.<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/p>\n

Alan Cottrill in his foundry<\/p>\n

RYAN SCOTT FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

Cottrill originally made the 18ft bronze before Trump\u2019s second inauguration. In December it received a modification: a layer of 23.75 carat gold leaf, applied in his foundry.<\/p>\n

It has cost him any amount of trouble. Just finding a gold-leaf expert who was willing to work on a Trump statue proved harder than expected, and now the colossus lies taking up space in his foundry while his patrons arrange for an unveiling by the president at his Doral golf resort in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they owe me is $91,200,\u201d he said on Tuesday. \u201cThey know it\u2019s not leaving until they pay me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dustin Stockton, 44, one of his patrons, declined to discuss the giant Trump statue with its new skin of gold, which the cryptocurrency entrepreneurs had hoped to keep under wraps until a suitable occasion was agreed for the president to unveil it himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal was we would pay whatever the final outstanding bill was before the statue leaves for its final destination at Doral,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s trying to squeeze us for it right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cottrill, 73, has made bronzes of 16 past presidents and a Thomas Edison that stands in Statuary Hall in the Capitol. In August 2024 he received a call from a sculptor in Las Vegas who said: \u201cHey, do you want to do a 15ft Trump statue?\u201d<\/p>\n

He was put in touch by phone with a group of 16 cryptocurrency entrepreneurs \u2014 one in Canada, the others mostly in the United States \u2014 who wanted to create a giant bronze Trump commemorating his survival of the assassination attempt at Butler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a turning point in world history,\u201d Stockton told The Times in 2025. \u201cIt would have been a full-blown civil war.\u201d They wanted to capture \u201cone of the most iconic moments and to show our appreciation of his embrace of crypto\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2018Don Colossus\u2019: why a 15ft bronze Trump statue will tower over Ohio<\/a><\/p>\n

The original plan was to unveil the statue at Trump\u2019s inauguration. Stockton talked about it looming over the National Mall. Cottrill, who said he agreed to do it for $300,000, had to work fast. \u201cNo one in the country could have sculpted it and cast it in bronze, 15ft scale, and did a wonderful job by everyone\u2019s estimation in just a few months,\u201d Cottrill said this week. \u201cThat usually commands a premium instead of a reduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Golden<\/p>\n

Cottrill and a few members of his team arrived in DC to stand the statue on a 6,000-pound concrete base they had made. The plan at this point was to install it inside the Capital One Arena at 1am on the morning of the January 19, before a rally Trump would hold on the eve of his inauguration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 9pm [the night before] I get a call from the crypto guys,\u201d Cottrill said. \u201cThey said the Secret Service just called.\u201d<\/p>\n

The temperature had plummeted; the Inauguration Day parade was to be held in the arena and the Secret Service were concerned at the prospect of an 18ft sculpture, weighing many thousands of pounds, looming over all those people, Cottrill said.<\/p>\n

So the statue stayed in a warehouse outside DC and was then moved to another in Pittsburgh. Every payment he received arrived weeks late, Cottrill said. \u201cThey were supposed to have paid up last spring.\u201d Then they asked to make payments in instalments. But \u201cthe biggest problem I had is the copyright infringement\u201d, he said. He understood that the plan was for a statue that would tour the country, appearing at rallies and events.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I came to find out was they had launched a token, a meme coin,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was their play all along.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website for the coin, the Patriot Token, bears a picture of Cottrill\u2019s bronze. \u201cI didn\u2019t know they were going to do that. I said: \u2018That\u2019s copyright infringement,\u2019\u201d said Cottrill. \u201cAnd they said: \u2018Oh no, we bought the statue.\u2019 I said: \u2018Yes but you didn\u2019t buy the rights to reproduce it for monetary gain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottrill believes he is now owed for installation and for storing a lorry trailer at his premises, for which he has been charging them $300 a month \u2014 but the bulk of the outstanding balance is for the image rights, he said.<\/p>\n

In November he approached his patrons with a suggestion. The enormous bronze was already burnished to look gold, but what if they coated it in gold leaf? The proposal was like a glass of water \u201cto a person dying of thirst\u201d, he said. \u201cImmediately everybody jumped on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottrill called up Sepp Leaf Products in New York, a leading supplier of gold leaf. They \u201cdid all the gold leaf for the White House\u201d, said Cottrill.<\/p>\n

Lauren Sepp, 45, said: \u201cWe have sold gold to clients who have gilded in the White House,\u201d but she added that they had not done the gilding itself. She said they supplied 23.75-carat gold leaf for Cottrill\u2019s Trump sculpture.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gold leaf for the Trump colossus<\/p>\n

ALAN COTTRILL<\/p>\n

Cottrill called a gilder who had recently finished work on a prominent sculpture in Manhattan, but the man proved \u201creal reluctant\u201d to work on a giant Trump. \u201cHe said: \u2018I just can\u2019t do it because of the subject matter.\u2019 I said: \u2018Well, you may have a number of other people in your team. He said: \u2018Alan, none of them would do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 We\u2019ve seen Trump\u2019s White House ballroom tactics before \u2014 in the 1940s<\/a><\/p>\n

Cottrill turned to an Ohio sculptor named Brenda Councill who had gilded the inside of several domes. The colossus was returned to Cottrill\u2019s foundry in Zanesville, Ohio; its surface was prepped and then layers of delicate gold leaf, thinner than a butterfly\u2019s wing, were applied to the giant Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us all of December,\u201d said Cottrill.<\/p>\n

For a while he had understood that the statue would be erected at Trump\u2019s presidential library but last month he was informed that it would stand at the Trump Doral against a half-circle of three palms, overlooking the tenth hole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went with my foundry manager to Doral three weeks ago to install the 6,000-pound base ahead of time,\u201d he said. He brought a 12in version of the statue to get an idea of how it might stand. \u201cIt was the only thing I could get in my hand luggage,\u201d he said. He positioned the pint-sized Trump on the pedestal. \u201cThe landscape architect didn\u2019t like the look of the positioning of the three palms behind the base so they dug them up and repositioned them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patriot Token then announced that \u201cthe team at Trump Doral will be busy cladding the pedestal, installing a ton of up\/down lighting and landscaping\u201d and promised that what the president \u201chas in store for the $PATRIOT community and his inner circle for this unveiling will surely be spectacular!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s son Eric responded with a post on X, thanking them for their \u201csupport and enthusiasm\u201d but adding: \u201cWe want to be crystal clear \u2014 we are not involved in this coin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/p>\n

Cottrill said Pastor Mark Burns, an evangelical preacher sometimes referred to as the president\u2019s spiritual adviser, had been involved in conversations about the statue and where it would go but Trump himself had not been involved in the project.<\/p>\n

Everything is now ready. Stockton, one of Cottrill\u2019s patrons, insisted that the artist would be paid as agreed. \u201cWe sent him a bunch of money recently,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cottrill said that \u201cthe crypto bros want a date for Trump to unveil it and that\u2019s why they have been holding off payments to me for the intellectual-property [IP] rights\u201d, he said. \u201cThey have been infringing on my copyright for almost a year and a half now.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is still owed $91,200, Cottrill said. And the giant Trump is staying with him until he gets it. He added: \u201cI can\u2019t trust them to pay me otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alan<\/p>\n

In a statement, the crypto entrepreneurs said that \u201cthe statue was paid in full a year ago and we recently paid in full to have the statue finished in 24-carat-gold leaf. The project also paid for 50 per cent of the IP rights around 6 months ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

They had paid the artist recently for the new gold finish and \u201cwe are confused as to why he accepted a similar amount of money for the gold application when he could have just asked us to pay for the balance of the IP if that was of concern to him\u201d, they said. \u201cUnder any business agreement there\u2019s always some funds withheld until the finished product is complete. Alan provided the group finished photos on Thursday January 29.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cHe\u2019s an amazing artist and despite his comments we greatly appreciate the work he completed on this historic statue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a foundry in the hills of Ohio lies a colossal bronze statue of President Trump that was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-406983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}