Among the thousands of structures destroyed in January’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires was The Bunny Museum in Altadena, once home to 60,000 rabbit-related objects.
Founded 27 years ago by husband-and-wife duo Steve Lubanski and Candace Frazee, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit museum held a Guinness World Record for the largest rabbit-themed collection, which was valued at $1.7 million. Now damaged, Lubanski and Frazee’s collection included contemporary art and artifacts from antiquity.
In response to press coverage of the fire-ravaged museum, British contemporary artist Harry Bunce, known in the United Kingdom for his rabbit-centered paintings and sculptures, created a painting he plans to auction to help the organization get back on its feet.
“At the time of the Los Angeles fires, a video of a tearful Steve [Lubanski] popped up on my feeds, and I was taken aback as this was clearly someone who had lost everything,” Bunce told Hyperallergic. “I painted ‘Blue for You’ over the following week.”
Bunce will sell “Blue for You” (2025), a painting of a rabbit hugging a blue toy bunny under a blue heart, via the Fine Art Auction, on February 16.
In a viral newscast in January, Lubanski grew tearful while speaking to a reporter about the loss of the couple’s beloved museum. “It took me and my wife almost 40 years to put it together,” Lubanski said. “We’ll go on.”
Frazee told Hyperallergic in an email that she and Lubanski, along with two bunnies and three cats, have been living in a motel since the fire.
“We are at the burn site every day looking for bunnies to save,” Frazee said, noting that the couple recovered 210 charred bunny objects from the museum. She added that 323 rabbit objects have been donated by people from the United States and the UK to help build a new rabbit collection, as the couple looks to reconstruct the museum at the same location.
The Bunny Museum’s original collection delved into contemporary bunny references both innocent and sinister — from K-pop artist mascots to the far-right conspiracy movement QAnon’s logo, which includes a white rabbit.
Bunce told Hyperallergic that rabbits “crept into [his] work and would not leave.”
“For me, rabbits represent the underdogs, the ones that won’t give up no matter the odds,” Bunce said. “I have every confidence that The Bunny Museum will be rebuilt bigger and better than before.”
As of Monday, February 10, Frazee and Lubanski have raised nearly $58,000 of their $1.5 million goal on GoFundMe to jumpstart the reconstruction of the museum and collection.
Frazee said she and Lubanski were touched by Bunce’s benefit auction, and that his works “are novel and heart-warming.”
“We hope to see him and his art in The Bunny Museum when it is up and hoppin’,” Frazee said.
