Bowling Green

Bowling Green

Bowling Green -- the spot where, purportedly, Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island for $24 -- is the oldest, smallest park in the five boroughs, and the semi-permanent home of Arturo Di Modica's enormous 7000 lb. Charging Bull sculpture--a popular monument, quintessentially New York, that celebrates both the anarchic spirit of subversive art and the resilient commercial spirit of nearby Wall Street. The story is as compelling as the structure. One night in December 1989, a 7-ton sculpture of a bull mysteriously appeared beneath the large Christmas tree that stood directly outside the New York stock exchange. Charging Bull, which appears poised to storm up Broad Street, was intended, Di Modica has said, to represent the "vitality, energy, and life of the American people in adversity" in the wake of the stock market crash of 1987. Outraged by the disruption, Stock Exchange officials hauled the bull away that very afternoon (Di Modica has suggested the primary objection was to the size of the bull's testicles). Despite its very brief stint on Wall Street, the public rallied quickly and loudly to the cause of Charging Bull, which, a few days later, was relocated by the Parks Department to Bowling Green, where it has been generously exempted from city regulations that prohibit the display of public art for periods beyond one year, much to the joy of many passing tourists. Di Modica has since sought to sell the sculpture, but the City turned him down, and the only private group that raised sufficient funds intended to ship Charging Bull to Las Vegas, where art goes to die. A public intervention, led by the former Parks commissioner, assured the bronze bull a home at Bowling Green.