Charging Bull

Arturo Di Modica during the 1980s

The bull was cast by the Bedi-Makky Art Foundry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Di Modica spent $360,000 to create, cast, and install the sculpture following the 1987 stock market crash.[2] The sculpture was Di Modica's idea. Having arrived penniless in the US in 1970, Di Modica felt indebted to America for welcoming him and enabling his career as a successful sculptor. Charging Bull was intended to inspire each person who came into contact with it to carry on fighting through the hard times after the 1987 stock market crash.[8] Di Modica later recounted to art critic Anthony Haden Guest "My point was to show people that if you want to do something in a moment things are very bad, you can do it. You can do it by yourself. My point was that you must be strong".[8]

In an act of guerrilla art, Bedi-Makky Art Foundry and Di Modica trucked it to Lower Manhattan. On December 15, 1989, they installed it beneath a 60-foot (18 m) Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange Building as a Christmas gift to New Yorkers. That day, hundreds of onlookers stopped to see it as Di Modica handed out copies of a flier about his artwork.[2]

NYSE officials called police later that day, and the NYPD seized the sculpture and placed it into an impound lot.[2] The ensuing public outcry led the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to reinstall it two blocks south of the Exchange, in Bowling Green, facing up Broadway just north of Whitehall Street. Charging Bull was rededicated at its new location with a ceremony on December 21, 1989.[9]

The sculpture technically has a temporary permit allowing it to stand on city property since the city does not own the sculpture, but the temporary permission has lasted since 1989, when city officials said the new location would not be permanent.[9] Art on loan is usually limited to a year's display, and although the city does not buy art, it does accept donations. By 1993, Di Modica wanted to sell the statue to recover the $320,000 cost of manufacturing it. However, there was only one major bid for the statue: a hotel in Las Vegas that offered $300,000.[10]

A writer in the New York Daily News wrote in 1998 that the statue's placement was "beginning to look a mite permanent".[7] According to an article in Art Monthly, Di Modica, as well as officials and New Yorkers, "view it as a permanent feature of Lower Manhattan".[11] In 2004, Di Modica announced that Charging Bull was for sale, on condition the buyer did not move it from its location.[1][12] The sculpture remained unsold by 2008.[13]

Di Modica continued to own the artistic copyright to the statue,[1] and filed several lawsuits against firms making replicas. For instance, Di Modica sued Wal-Mart and other companies in 2006 for selling replicas of the bull and using it in advertising campaigns.[14][15] Three years later, Di Modica sued Random House for using a photo of the bull on the cover of a book discussing the collapse of financial services firm Lehman Brothers.[16]

As soon as the sculpture was set up at Bowling Green, it became "an instant hit".[10] One of the city's most photographed artworks, it has become a tourist destination in the Financial District. "Its popularity is beyond doubt", a New York Times article said of the artwork. "Visitors constantly pose for pictures around it." [1] Henry J. Stern, the city parks commissioner when the statue first appeared in the Financial District, said in 1993: "People are crazy about the bull. It captured their imagination."[10] Adrian Benepe, a later parks commissioner, said in 2004, "It's become one of the most visited, most photographed and perhaps most loved and recognized statues in the city of New York. I would say it's right up there with the Statue of Liberty."[1] One 2007 newspaper report noted a "ceaseless stream" of visitors from India, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Venezuela, and China, as well as the United States. Children enjoy climbing on the bull,[17] which sits "famously"[6] at street level on the cobblestones at the far northern tip of Bowling Green. A 2003 Bollywood film, Kal Ho Naa Ho, featured Charging Bull in a musical number; one visitor told a reporter that the bull's appearance in the film was a reason for his visit to New York City.[4] Despite the financial crisis of 2007–2008, Charging Bull remained a popular tourist attraction.[13]

In addition to having their pictures taken at the front end of the bull, many tourists pose at the back of the bull, near the large testicles "for snapshots under an unmistakable symbol of its virility".[13] According to a Washington Post article in 2002, "People on The Street say you've got to rub the nose, horns and testicles of the bull for good luck, tour guide Wayne McLeod would tell the group on the Baltimore bus, who would giddily oblige."[18] A 2004 New York Times article said, "Passers-by have rubbed—to a bright gleam—its nose, horns and a part of its anatomy that, as Mr. Benepe put it gingerly, 'separates the bull from the steer.'"[1] A 2007 newspaper account agreed that a "peculiar ritual" of handling the "shining orbs" of the statue's scrotum seems to have developed into a tradition.[4]

On March 7, 2017, a bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal, Fearless Girl, was installed facing Charging Bull.[19] It was commissioned to advertise for an index fund that comprises gender-diverse companies that have a relatively high percentage of women among their senior leadership and installed in anticipation of International Women's Day the following day. It depicts a girl four foot high, promoting female empowerment.[20] After Di Modica filed complaints about Fearless Girl, it was removed in November 2018 and relocated to outside the New York Stock Exchange. A plaque with footprints was placed on the original site of Fearless Girl.[21]

The intersection of Wall and Broad Streets, where Charging Bull would most likely be relocated

In November 2019, city officials announced that Charging Bull would be relocated to a plaza outside the New York Stock Exchange due to safety concerns at Bowling Green.[22][23] Officials stated that because Charging Bull is located on a traffic median with large crowds, it was vulnerable to terrorist attacks, citing examples such as the 2017 truck attack on the nearby West Side Highway.[24] Local community group Downtown Alliance supported the relocation, but Di Modica opposed it.[25][26] The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) had filed an application with the New York City Public Design Commission (PDC) to relocate Charging Bull, but subsequently withdrew the application, which a city spokesperson said was due to uncertainty over the new location.[27][28] Residents of Manhattan Community District 1, which includes the Financial District, expressed opposition to the relocation in a meeting with city officials in May 2020. At the time, updated plans called for Charging Bull to be located at the corner of Broad Street and Wall Street, north of Fearless Girl.[29]

Di Modica created a number of variations of the Charging Bull which have been sold to private collectors. Joe Lewis, who was one time majority owner of Christies, purchased the rest of the original edition. In October 2018 a 6-foot (1.8 m) highly polished bronze version of Charging Bull went to sale at auction at Phillips and sold for $405,000.[33][34] The following March a stainless steel version went on sale at Sotheby's where it sold for $275,000 despite being in poor condition.[35]

Di Modica is officially represented by Geist, an international private art dealership.[36]

As a prominent symbol of Wall Street and capitalism generally, Charging Bull has been the frequent target of vandalism, particularly as an act of civil disobedience. Shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers during the 2008 financial crisis, the bull's scrotum was painted blue.[48] Leading up to a protest on May 12, 2011, the bull was tagged in at least two locations, once again including the scrotum, with the Anarchist "circle-A" iconography, prompting the NYPD to temporarily install barricades around the sculpture.[49] The barriers returned that fall during the Occupy Wall Street protests, and remained in place until March 25, 2014,[50] despite a unanimous resolution from the local community board saying they constituted a hazard to pedestrians.[51]

On September 14, 2017, three months after U.S. president Donald Trump formally announced the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, an artist attempting to highlight U.S. popular support for the accord doused the head of the sculpture in a blue pigment.[52][53]

In 2019, Charging Bull was vandalized twice. On September 7, a man from Dallas struck the sculpture with a banjo, leaving a sizable dent in the horn.[54][55] Professional Bull Riders donated money from its ticket sales to pay for fixes to the horn,[56] and Di Modica personally came to the site the following month to repair his creation.[57] Then on October 7, activists from Extinction Rebellion hurled fake blood over the sculpture and staged a die-in on the surrounding traffic plaza.[58]