Justin Bieber, 25, expressed his love for his late friend Kobe Bryant on the day the basketball great was tragically killed in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26 and now he’s taking things up a notch by owning some impressive tribute art designed by Indie Box art owners Emily Bright and Tamara Martin. The singer’s team recently reached out to the ladies to purchase the cartoon artwork, which features a teddy bear wearing Kobe’s famous Los Angeles Lakers #8 jersey over a Mamba hoodie and Nike sneakers, TMZ reported. He paid $1,200 for the piece, which is one of only five created. Check out the Kobe tribute art HERE!
Justin’s new possession is made of 41.5 inches X 24 inches of hand-cut wood that’s covered in acrylic paint and topped with a coating of resin. After the epic piece sold out within a few hours, the artists, who previously worked on art for Justin, decided to make miniature versions of it for $200 each. They’ll go on sale on Feb. 6 and 7 and 24 percent of the profits will go to the MambaOnThree Fund, which was created to help raise funds for the seven other victims that died in the helicopter crash with Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
Justin’s purchase of the Kobe tribute art doesn’t come as too much of a surprise considering how close he felt to the athlete. Just hours after the shocking news of his death made headlines, the “Baby” crooner took to Instagram to post a photo of himself posing with Kobe and captioned it with a heartbreaking message. “It can’t be. You always encouraged me mamba. Gave me some of the best quotes that we smile about to this day! Love you man!” it read.