NEW YORK– The artist behind “Charging Bull,” the bronze sculpture that has come to symbolize Wall Street, wants “Fearless Girl” out of the way.
The statue of the girl with her hands defiantly on her hips has become a tourist sensation since she was installed across from the bull last month. A financial firm put her there to advocate for getting more women on corporate boards.
The city has said “Fearless Girl” can keep staring down the bull at least through February 2018. But Norman Siegel, a lawyer representing “Charging Bull” sculptor Arturo Di Modica, says it’s a copyright and trademark violation. He wants the girl moved.
“Were not saying that it should be moved out of the city. It just needs to be placed in another place,” said Siegel, a civil rights lawyer who said he stands for gender equality. Di Modica planned to appear at a press conference Wednesday.
Di Modica has said he was inspired by the 1987 stock market crash to create the bull and sold his family farm in Sicily to pay for it. “Charging Bull” was installed in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the middle of the night in December 1989. Police removed it because it didn’t have a permit, but public support was so great that the city gave it a permanent home nearby.
Kristen Visbal, the sculptor who created “Fearless Girl,” did not immediately return a request for comment. State Street Global Advisors, the firm that installed the statue, also did not answer a request for comment.
