Romania’s Culture Ministry opens text message donations for Brancusi sculpture

People interested to donate money in the Culture Ministry’s campaign to buy famous Romanian sculpture Wisdom of the Earth (Cumintenia Pamantului) by Constantin Brancusi will be able to do it via text message, starting Friday, July 22. “Starting today, text message donations for Wisdom of the Earth are possible. You can send an SMS with the message ‘brancussi’ to the number 8833 and thus contribute EUR 2 to the national fundraising campaign,” culture minister Cristina Suteu wrote on Facebook. The donations made in the first two months of the fundraising campaign totaled little over EUR 300,000, which is 5% of the EUR 6 million that the Culture Ministry needs to get to buy the statue from its current owners. The Government has agreed to pay EUR 11 million for the famous Brancusi piece, EUR 5 million of which will come from the state budget. People 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. Romania’s public television TVR will also hold a dedicated 8-hour teledon campaign on September 18. The fundraising campaign ends on September 30. If the state doesn’t raise EUR 6 million by then all donations should be returned. Romania's Govt. tries new ways to raise money for Brancusi sculpture editor@romania-insider.com