Bull on Wall Street
The Bull on Wall Street is one of the most unusual monuments in New York: a huge, three and a half tons bronze bull. It is located on Wall Street in front of the north entrance to Bowling Green.
The Bull on Wall Street appeared not so long ago, in 1989. Its author, sculptor Arturo Di Modica, spent over 300 thousand dollars of his own money on its creation. The bull was going to be ceremonially installed right in front of the entrance to the famous New York Stock Exchange. Why a bull?! The point is that when stocks go up, in banking slang it is called a bull market. And. accordingly, stockbrokers who bet on the rise in the price of their shares are nicknamed “bulls”. And those who play the stock price down. -are called “bears.” However, the comrades in charge of the stock exchange saw one detail in the sculpture that they were not happy with.
“You see,” they said to the sculptor, “different people come here, among them there are women and children, and your bull has such a huge, just-so-prominent, signs of his manhood. It would be necessary to reduce them or better to remove them completely.”
To do this circumcision, an outraged Di Modica flatly refused, considering it sacrilegious. “I am a man,” the sculptor angrily retorted, “and the bull is a man. Violence against him is violence against me.”
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Then the stockbrokers demanded the bull be removed. And the city officials allowed it to be moved to Broadway. But they refused to pay the creator’s expenses: “You should be happy that your sculpture is on display in the best place in the world!”
This story was heard in Las Vegas, where they immediately offered Di Modica to sell the bull. It was going to be installed in front of the entrance to one of the popular casino hotels. The sculptor refused this lucrative offer, saying that he was making the bull just for New York, for the glory of the great city.
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And then, as is often the case in America, a public organization was created to save the bull, which collected the necessary amount of money to the artist. Now with this money Di Modica is working on a bear, which will probably take a place next to the bull.
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