Staten Island artist Scott LoBaido installed a giant middle-finger sculpture directly in front of City Hall, aimed at Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani in protest against his policies.
The statue was placed on a stone pedestal. It’s about six to ten feet tall and is facing the building head-on.
On it, a plaque reading “Vaffanculo,” Italian for “go f*ck yourself.” LoBaido called it a “gift from the people of New York” to “Mayor Mamdandy” he even did a countdown before the reveal.
Hundreds of people have already shown up to see it.
LoBaido, is a known conservative patriot artist famous for flag paintings, pro-Trump installations, and past protests like throwing pizzas at City Hall over oven restrictions or flipping off congestion pricing cameras (leading to an arrest).
He has a history of direct-action against city leaders who he says harm working New Yorkers.
- Mandani has come under fire for threatening to impose a 9.5% property tax on all residents in the city, proposing the lower the cap on inheritance tax and up the percentage the city gets to 50%, his city-owned grocery stores, rent freezes, free universal childcare, free buses, and other big-spending programs and basically trying to turn New York City socialist.
Mamdani also recently bragged about balancing the budget, however Gov. Kathy Hochul gave him $8 billion dollars and former Mayor Eric Adams said Mamdani lied about being left with a deficit.
- New York has sky-high taxes, skyrocketing crime, and sanitation problems under Mamdani.
- A resurfaced 2020 photo of Mamdani giving the middle finger to a Christopher Columbus statue with “Take it down” added fuel, especially angering Italian-American communities.
