The Bull of Wall Street
October 15, 2009
Written by admin, in Office Space New York City
Looking for something interesting to share with your colleagues during happy hour? A team member at the OfficeLinks 40 Wall Street location has uncovered an interesting story behind a Wall Street legend:
On the morning of December 16, 1989, the New York Stock Exchange unexpectedly found a 7,000-pound mass of bronze in the shape of a ready-to-charge bull on the sidewalk. The symbol of strength, power and hope was the creation of Sicilian American sculptor, who lived in SoHo, Arturo Di Modica. In the middle of the night, with a rental truck and 30 friends, Arturo drove into the guarded section and installed the beast on the sidewalk beneath a 60-foot Christmas tree in the middle of Broad Street, just around the corner from OfficeLinks’ Wall Street offices – all within the eight-minute lapse between patrol rounds.
Arturo indicated that the $360,000 “gift” was given to the American people in memory of Black Monday (October 19, 1987, the day Dow Jones index recorded the largest loss in history). The police were ordered to remove the bull due to traffic obstruction, but public protest convinced the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to move it to its now permanent location on Bowling Green Park.
