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Beniamino Bufano (1969)

1969: Beniamino Bufano, noted Bay Area sculptor and pacifist, gifts to the city of San Francisco a statue titled "St. Francis of the Guns", which would later be installed at City College.  The sculpture is made with metal from melted-down handguns turned in to the city at the urging of Mayor Joseph Alioto after the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968.

Beniamino Bufano, 1898-1970. Italian-born sculptor who lived SF, and was known for his pacifist views on World War I and his associations with Sun Yat-sen and Gandhi. His sculptures consisted largely of animals, figures representing peace, and the people who influenced him.  His work is widely displayed throughout the Bay Area, where he lived from 1921 until his death.  St. Francis of the Guns wears a robe that is adorned with a folkish ceramic mosaic featuring the faces of Robert and John F. Kennedy, King and Abraham Lincoln. The piece was dedicated at City College by Mayor George Moscone in 1977. Image courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.