Brancusi sculpture campaign: 10,000 Romanians make text message donations in one week

More than 10,000 Romanians made donations via text messages (SMS) for Constantin Brancusi’s famous Wisdom of the Earth (Cumintenia Pamantului) sculpture in one week. The Culture Ministry launched this option on July 22. Those who want to make donations via SMS can do it by sending a message with the text ‘brancusi’ to 8833. One text message represents an EUR 2 donation, which means that the Romanians have already donated more than EUR 20,000. The fundraising campaign for the Brancusi sculpture officially started on May 19. In two months, Romania’s Government managed to raise little over EUR 306,000, which is 5% of the EUR 6 million that the Culture Ministry needs to get to buy the statue from its current owners. Romania is to pay EUR 11 million for Wisdom of the Earth, with EUR 5 million coming from the state budget. Those interested in contributing to the campaign can donate on the campaign’s dedicated website brancusiealmeu.ro, via bank transfer, or by “virtually buying” the sculpture on emag.ro, the biggest local online retailer. Donations come with tax exemptions and, if the campaign is unsuccessful, the donors will get their money back. Romanian librarian makes new attempt to swim the English Channel, this time for Brancusi sculpture Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Cumintenia Pamantului on Facebook)