Last month, we told you how Stephen Okeke put his latest sculpture of Thomas Vincent Ramos up for sale after his funders backed out of the deal to pay for it.
TV Ramos, of course, is a cultural icon and founder of Garifuna Settlement Day in Belize.Okeke claims that he was contracted by members of the Garifuna Community to sculpt the monument to be placed in Dangriga Town, but when he was finished with it, he suddenly had no one to sell it to.
So, in protest, he put out in front of his business place on the Northern Highway with a for sale sign. He was willing to take a lesser payment just so that he could get rid of it, but he's now gotten a few allies from the Garifuna Community to try and come up with the full price.
How much is that asking price? Well, he says that it's worth $40,000, and Bert Ramos, Mitias Mariano, and Walter Gillett want to buy it from him. We've featured Bert Ramos on our newscast, and as a descendant of TV Ramos he told the media today in a press conference that he will get try to get the money to buy it. He and the other men say that they will fund raise:
Bert Ramos - Organizing Fund-Raiser
"We don't feel like it's really right for it to be out here for sale and so I had really wanted someone to come along with me and I brought out my thoughts to Mr. Okeke and he said that there is someone else who is also interested. My brothers here call me and they say that they are onboard with me and all I need was 3 persons that could get this thing started, so today we are here launching an account number so that we can all come together and buy this monument from Mr. Okeke. It doesn't matter how the monument was build or what, but today we know that it's a monument that we the Garifuna people appreciated and so we would like all the Garifuna people just put a little token to our account and we will definitely have this monument in Dangriga for the 19th of November celebrations."
Reporter
"How much is he selling the monument to you for?"
Bert Ramos - Organizing Fund-Raiser
"Well presently he is selling the monument for $40,000 and so I think for me and for also Mr. Thomas Vincent Ramos, I think that if a man works you pay him for what he works. If he said that its $40,000 we are going to work and pay him his $40,000 and take this monument to Dangriga."
Those in the public who wish to make contributions to buy the sculpture can do so using the Belize Bank Account number is 6-9-5-2-2-3-2-5-7-0-5.
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