Metro

‘Charging Bull’ sculptor Arturo Di Modica remembered at NYC statue

Mourners gathered at the Charging Bull sculpture in Lower Manhattan on Saturday to pay their respects to its creator following his death. 

Artist Arturo Di Modica died in his hometown of Vittoria, Sicily, on Friday, friends said. He was 80 years old.

On Saturday, flowers were draped over the bronze sculpture, which has been a fixture for Wall Street tourists since it was installed on Broadway in 1989. 

“Riposa in pace maestro,” read a yellow ribbon wrapped around the flower arrangement, Italian for “Rest in peace master.”

Philip Quartuccio, a New York Stock Exchange trader, was admiring the sculpture on Saturday — and said he hopes people remember Di Modica for gifting the city with the piece, built to symbolize the Big Apple’s resilience after the 1987 stock market crash.

Di Modica had installed the 3.5-ton statue overnight without permission.

1 of 5
Talia Ardaman (left) and her father Asim Ardaman (right) from New Mexico came as tourists to see the Charging Bull.
Talia Ardaman (left) and her father Asim Ardaman (right) of New Mexico came to see the “Charging Bull.”Kevin C. Downs
Geoff Cleveland, an employee at Merrill Lynch, came to see the statue on Wall Street.
Geoff Cleveland, an employee at Merrill Lynch, at the FiDi statue.Kevin C. Downs
Advertisement
Tourists gather at the charging bull
More tourists gathering around the “Charging Bull.”Kevin C. Downs
Advertisement

“I see it less as a symbol of finance or anything like that. I see it more of a beautiful gift to the city and I think that’s what the artist intended,” said Quartuccio, 46.

“That’s the story I would want to remember. He gave it to us, and I think that’s pretty special.”

Boston tourist David Walter, 25, said Quartuccio “lives on in the name of the statue.”

“It’s a shame that he is gone,” Walter said.