CHARGING BULL MOVING

The "Charging Bull" statue in Lower Manhattan is finally moving back to its original location on Wall Street near the New York Stock Exchange.

The bull was originally placed in front of the Stock Exchange by Italian-born sculptor Arturo Di Modica in the middle of the night in December 1989. Di Modica had created the bull following the 1987 stock market crash to present the city with a symbol of the “strength and power of the American people.” The artist created it in his SoHo studio in several segments, which were welded together and polished, at a cost of $360,000.

NY Post, 1989

After leaving it at the foot of a Christmas tree in front of the Stock Exchange, the 7,000-pound sculpture was discovered and quickly moved into storage in Queens. Two days later the artist convinced the Parks Department to have it reinstalled at the bottom of Broadway in Bowling Green.

Since then, the bull has become an icon of the city and a major tourist attraction, a worldwide symbol of New York City and the Financial District. But its location on a small sliver of a pedestrian island between two busy streets makes it unsafe for the tourists who dart in front of busses to get over to the bull, which is now patrolled by a police presence with concrete barriers. The city hopes to improve pedestrian safety in the area by moving it a new blocks away to a more desirable location. The exact location on Wall Street has not been determined. Recently the Fearless Girl statue created by Street Global Advisors to celebrate ‘the power of women in leadership’ was also moved from the Bowling Green site to in front of the Stock Exchange. Di Modica had publically stated his opposition to the corporate Fearless Girl statue that "turns his ‘positive, optimistic’ message into a ‘threat.’