Wednesday, December 22, 2004
How about the Wall Street Bull as a Christmas present?
For another or yourself -- get your $5 million out now...
It'll be $5 million more of his life after he gets your money, with The Bull staying exactly where it's been all along, nothing changed."The Charging Bull" - a massive bronze sculpture famously deposited outside the New York Stock Exchange before the start of business in December 1989 - is up for sale.
The only conditions are that a deep-pocketed buyer instantly must donate the 7,000-pound tourist favorite to the city. It must also be kept in Bowling Green Park, where authorities eventually transplanted the bull because it lacked a permit for Wall St.
"It ... must stay there," said sculptor Arturo Di Modica, who created the bull as a symbol of hope following the 1987 stock market crash.
"Love the bull," declared Di Modica, who delivered the piece before dawn on a flatbed truck. "Respect the bull."
And pony up for it, too. The starting price is $5 million ...The piece has become a destination for out-of-towners, who straddle the bull and take it by the horns. "All over, they talk about 'The Charging Bull,'" Di Modica said in a telephone interview from Italy. "I created something incredible."
Even if he unloads his pet project, Di Modica said he still plans to pay weekly late-night visits to the bull. "It's my strength," he said. "It's my life." [NYDN]
Whose Christmas present will this be? "Love the Bull!"
