Arturo Di Modica, sculptor of Wall Street's Charging Bull, dies at 80

Arturo Di Modica, the Italian-born sculptor famous for his Charging Bull statue on Wall Street, died at age 80 in Vittoria, Sicily. Born in Vittoria in 1941, he left Sicily at 19 to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, where he opened his first studio and worked in bronze and Carrara marble. In 1973 he moved to New York, opening a studio in SoHo's Crosby Street. His career-defining moment came in 1989 when he self-funded the 350,000-dollar bronze bull and installed it illegally in front of the New York Stock Exchange on December 16, 1989, as a symbol of optimism after the stock market crash. The bull was later moved to Bowling Green at the start of Broadway, where it became a major tourist attraction. In 2010 he installed a similar but younger bull, Shanghai Bund Bull, to celebrate China's economic dynamism. In March 2017, Kristen Visbal's Fearless Girl statue was placed in front of the bull, commissioned by State Street Global Advisors via McCann New York as a feminist statement. Di Modica objected, saying it insulted his work and changed its original meaning of freedom, peace, strength, power, and love. Fearless Girl was later relocated to Wall Street. Di Modica's funeral was held on Monday, February 22, 2021, at the Church of San Giovanni Battista in Vittoria.