Charging Bull Turns 30: Sicilian Artist's Guerrilla Sculpture
On December 15, 1989, Arturo Di Modica's three-and-a-half-ton bronze Charging Bull was illegally installed on Wall Street before being moved to Bowling Green Park. The Sicilian-born artist created the bull in response to the 1987 stock market crash, spending $230,000 and two years on the sculpture. After its removal by police, it found a permanent home through negotiations with Mayor Ed Koch and Bowling Green Association president Arthur Piccolo. Copies exist in Florida and Shanghai. Di Modica later received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and is planning a monumental sculpture of horses in Sicily's Valle dell'Ippari.
Key facts
- Charging Bull was installed on December 15, 1989
- Sculpture weighs three and a half tons
- Arturo Di Modica was born in Vittoria, Sicily in 1941
- He moved to the US in 1973
- The bull cost $230,000 to create
- It was initially placed illegally in front of the New York Stock Exchange
- The bull was moved to Bowling Green Park after negotiations
- A smaller version was placed in Shanghai in April 2010
Entities
Artists
- Arturo Di Modica
- Kristen Visbal
Institutions
- New York Stock Exchange
- Bowling Green Association
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
- Scuola Libera del Nudo
- Accademia di Belle Arti
- State Street Global Advisors
- McCann New York
Locations
- Wall Street
- New York City
- Bowling Green Park
- Vittoria
- Ragusa
- Sicily
- Florence
- Soho
- Florida
- Shanghai
- Valle dell'Ippari
- Italy
- United States
- New York
- Crosby Street
- SoHo
- Bowling Green
- Broadway
- Church of San Giovanni Battista