His statues, which can cost up to $100,000 a piece are created by combining various dead animals through taxidermy. However, according to the courts, they claim that some of the animals that he uses are from the corpses of endangered species.
The illegal animals he’s accused of using are: cobras, pangolins, hornbills, and the skulls of babirusa and orangutans from areas all over the world including Bali, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and China.
He has been charged with possessing the skins of a Java kingfisher, collared kingfisher, bird of paradise, and juvenile hawk-eagle as well as the carcasses of a slow loris and a mouse deer, all from Indonesia.
Because he never obtained the proper permits, this means that he could be looking at a long time behind bars.
In his defense, he claims that he is doing this to raise awareness:
‘The impossibility of my creatures brings me both joy and sadness at the same time. The joy comes from seeing and experiencing the Fantasy of the work but that is coupled with the sadness of the fact that we are destroying all of these beautiful things.’
