The story of Arturo Di Modica and the Charging Bull. #stockmarket #chargingbull #art #newyork
THE ICONIC CHARGING BULL
I never heard the name Arturo Di Modica until
February 20, 2021. I had often wondered who made the iconic “Charging Bull”
statue also known as the Bowling Green Bull located near the headquarters of
the New York Stock Exchange in the USA. It is said to be one of New York city’s
“most visited monuments.”
The two subjects came together when I read that Arturo Di
Modica, who was the creator of the statue, died in his hometown Vittoria,
Sicily on Friday evening, February 19, 2021.
Are you confused? The statue is in New York city and Arturo’s
hometown is in Sicily? I can explain. Arturo came to New York in 1973 and lived
in the USA for more than 40 years. Prior to migrating to the USA, however,
he had studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Florence.
Once in the USA he opened an Art studio in the SoHo area.
Then conditions began to change. “It was a period of crisis. The New York
Stock exchange lost in one night more than 20% and because of this many
people were plunged into the blackest of depressions,” he said in an interview
earlier this month.
Frances D’Emilio
writes that Arturo spent “350,000 dollars of his own money to create the 3.5
tonne bronze beast that came to symbolize the resilience of the US economy
after a 1987 stock market crash.”
Arturo had an idea. It was going to be “a big joke.”
First he checked out the movement of
police in the Wall Street area at night. They were in the area every 7 – 8 minutes.
Why was this important? Arturo planned, with the help of “some
40 friends, a crane and a truck” to put the statue “near Bowling
They had no authority or permission to do so, but
they did!
“Police seized the 7,100 pound (3,200kg)
bronze statue from its position outside the New York Stock Exchange. But
following a public outcry, city officials allowed it to be reinstalled days
later in the heart of Manhattan’ s financial district.”
Years later, in an interview Di Modica said the sculpture
that was meant to be a joke “became a cursedly serious thing.” It became one of
the monuments that is most visited in New York City.
There are other works by Di Modica – works in marble,
bronze and a bronze horse exhibited in the Lincoln Center his biography says.
He returned to Sicily “and was working on prototypes for
a twin horse sculpture he planned to make for the town.”
His funeral will be held in Vittorio’s St. John the
Baptist Church on Monday, February 22, 2021. The day will be an official day of
mourning for Di Modica.
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