It left Paris on Monday and will embark at Le Havre for the United States in about ten days. It is the Statue of Liberty, or rather a 9 foot reproduction, which will soon be installed in Washington for at least ten years, after having spent a few days in New York next to its big sister.
The work is on loan from the CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) which houses the collections of Bartholdi, the sculptor who created it. The original plaster model is exhibited in the CNAM museum, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, and a bronze, cast in 2011, has been exhibited for ten years on the square. It is this statue that began its journey to the United States on Monday. “We are part of a hymn of freedom and a recognition of Franco-American friendship,” said Olivier Farron, CNAM’s general administrator, at the ceremony held Monday to celebrate the departure.
Stopover in New York
The statue, protected in a Plexiglas sarcophagus, will be placed on a CMA-CGM container ship on June 19 or 20, before disembarking in New York. There, from July 1 to 5, she will be enthroned on Ellis Island, the island through which would-be immigrants passed between 1892 and 1924. From this highly symbolic place she will look down on her big sister (which is 16 times bigger, reaching 150 feet, or 305 feet including the base). The public will be able to come and see it more closely during these 6 days, and in particular on the Fourth of July.
After this New York stage, the little Lady Liberty will take the road again towards Washington DC, where she will be installed for a period of ten years at least, in the gardens of the French ambassador’s residence, in the Kalorama district. The inauguration will take place on Bastille Day, July 14.
