The Non-Violence knotted gun, a .357 Magnum revolver with a knotted barrel and muzzle pointing upwards, was first created in 1985 by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (1934-2016). The Swedish artist designed the iconic sculpture as a memorial tribute to singer-songwriter and peace activist John Lennon after he was shot and killed in New York City in December 1980.
The Non-Violence Project Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation that supports the fight against violence, promoting peace and social change through violence-prevention education programmes – has used the sculpture as a symbol since 1993.
Now, through a unique partnership between the Non-Violence Foundation and IM Swedish Development Partner, Reuterswärd’s iconic sculpture has been recreated with an extra symbolic dimension: it has been created in Humanium Metal – an initiative by IM for peaceful societies where seized illegal weapons in Central America are melted, moulded into units and then made available for commercial production.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama endorses the project and has signed this first sculpture which is going to be auctioned at Sotheby’s, specifically in London on 27 June. Another, larger version of the Humanium Metal Non-Violence sculpture will be placed in Dharamsala, North-West India, where the Tibetan exile government takes up residence. In the 1960s, the Dalai Lama helped the Tibetan youths who fled from Tibet to reach Europe.
Limited editions of the work are now available at a fixed price and the revenue from these works, alongside that from the Sotheby's sale of the sculpture, will go to the two organisations and their work towards peaceful societies and societal change. The newly manufactured casting is an exact replica of Reuterswärd's original bronze work, which belongs in the collection of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Other limited edition Non-Violence sculptures are available to purchase directly from the Non-Violence Foundation, both as monochrome editions and as part of designs by ambassadors, among whom include Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Patrizia Gucci, Ringo Starr and Muhammad Ali, to name a few.
“We are responsible for everything that goes on” – John Lennon.