Arturo de Modica – sculptor of the famous “Charging Bull” statue in Wall Street – died at his home in Italy on Friday. He was 80.
Di Modica had been fighting cancer for many years, but continued to work, most recently working on a huge bronze depicting a pair of battles called “Sting of the Ipari”, which will be held in his hometown Vittoria in Sicily . Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.
The Italian artist was most famous for his work, the 3 ginged bronze “Charging Bull”, which was completed in 1989 and brought millions of viewers each year to Bowling Green in the Financial District, where the statue is located.
It was created in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash and has since become a beloved and internationally recognized symbol of Wall Street.
In September 2019, a Texas man was arrested and accused of breaking the statue with a banjo and calling him “the devil” – leaving a gush in one of the bull’s horns.
Di Modica told The Post at the time that he had estimated damage to the bull from $ 10,000 to $ 15,000, and was determined to recover by the end of the month after returning from Italy.
Other statues have sparked other controversies by having “Fearless Girl” near “Charging Bull”, a symbol of female empowerment, and more recently a Pope emoji statue made by a comedian.
De Modica moved to New York City in 1973, where he opened his first studio on Grand Street in Soho, and another year later on Crosby Street, where many of his works were produced, According to his biography on chargingbulb.com.
Some of his greatest successes include pieces of marble displayed at the Rockefeller Center, works in bronze at Castle Clinton National Monument in Battery Park, and a bronze horse painted at Lincoln Center, his biography says.
A woman claiming to be Di Modica’s cousin was mourning her death on Twitter.
“My dear cousin Arturo di Modica … the famous sculpture from Charge Bull in New York … left this world,” Diva Agata Mongowi Bonafé Tweeted.
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