Especially if you’re not a New Yorker, you might be under the impression that the famous Charging Bull statue, located on Broadway, just above Bowling Green Park, has been there since before you were born. However, for most of us, that’s not the case.
As for me, I guess I’d kinda just forgotten the days when it wasn’t there so, last week, I was grateful to learn the intriguing story of how the statue found its current home.
Early last year, I became friendly with a gentleman named Arthur Piccolo, who currently serves as the Chairman of the Bowling Green Association. Art is extremely involved in his community and is also quite knowledgeable regarding its history, which is why I originally sought him out.
A piece he wrote last week is how I learned what I’m about to share with you.
Oh, and just so you know, I spoke with him this afternoon to let him know that, in writing this piece, I’d be borrowing liberally from his. As he said in describing what he’d written, “There are all types of fictitious stories told by tour guides and others, none of them as accurate as what you are about to read.”
Okay, then. Let’s go.
In the days before the heightened security of the post-9/11 era, in the wee hours of December 15, 1989, Sicilian-born sculptor Arturo DiModica and a few cohorts turned their flatbed truck left onto Broad St. and up to the 60-foot Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
They then — unnoticed, remarkably— quickly unloaded the newly cast 3 ½ ton bull, which they’d transported from the Bedi-Makky Art Foundry in Brooklyn, and placed it directly in front of the NYSE building.
No, they didn’t have a permit or any official authorization to do so. Rather, it was an act of what DiModica referred to as “guerilla art.”
As the following morning turned out to be something of a slow news cycle, the mystery of the bull was all the media was talking about, primarily because no one knew how the hell it found its way to its new location or who had surreptitiously deposited it there.
Throughout the day, the bull was surrounded by members of the press, Wall Street workers, and other curious onlookers, all of whom were in a sort of gleeful awe about the new addition to the neighborhood. That is, except for some of the muckety mucks at the NYSE, particularly its then-CEO, Richard Grasso.
