The Knotted Gun

The Knotted Gun. A bronze sculpture of an oversized Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver with its muzzle tied in a knot.

After John Lennon was tragically shot dead in 1980, Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, a Swedish artist friend of the Lennon family, created a sculpture called “Non Violence” in a shape of a knotted gun. The idea was to pay a tribute to the singer’s vision of a peaceful world and promote a message of non-violence.

The sculpture, initially exhibited in Central Park in Manhattan, was soon to have a bronze version in front of the United Nation’s headquarters and to become an international symbol of peace.