United States: Charging Bull, one of New York's most recognised statues which once made a brief debut outside the Stock Exchange, is for sale.
The minimum bid is $5 million but sculptor and owner Arturo Di Modica says the buyer must keep the pavement-pawing statue where it now stands in the financial district and donate it to the city.
In return, the owner gets a tax deduction and a plaque.
The sculptor said he was inspired to create the bull after the 1987 stock market collapse. The creation took two years and more than $300,000.
Early one morning 15 years ago, with the help of 30 friends, a crane and a flatbed truck, he placed the 11-ft-tall, 16-ft-long 7,000-lb statue in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Police impounded the sculpture, but the public protested.
The city Parks Department then freed the bull from police custody and installed it at Bowling Green on lower Broadway, just a few minutes walk from the Exchange.
"The Charging Bull is a part of New York and it must stay in New York," Di Modica said in Sicily yesterday. "I created the Charging Bull to give young people a sense of hope."
He said he would use most of the proceeds to create other works and donate some money to a New York charity.
