 As a sculptor, Toptani created the first bust of George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, the national hero of Albania.He was born in 1867 in the Caucasus Mountains, where his father Seit was interned as a political prisoner.From 1875 to 1881, their family lived in Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire, but they settled again in the Caucasus Mountains, where Seit was again interned because of his membership in the League of Prizren.