Another scaled-down Statue of Liberty, which has been in storage at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, began its journey to the United States today, Monday, and should arrive at the residence of the French ambassador to the United States on July 14, the French National Day. The 2.83-meter bronze statue was loaned to the French Embassy in the United States by the French National Academy of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) for ten years. The Statue of Liberty from the same model is still on public display in Paris in at least two other statues, one on the Seine River bridge in front of the Radio France building and the other in the Luxembourg Park.
The statue was previously housed in the front courtyard of the Musée des Arts et Métiers since 2011.
According to “CNAM director general Olivier Faron, speaking at a ceremony to mark the statue’s departure, “thereby we celebrate freedom and celebrate Franco-American friendship.”
According to AFP, the work was made by the Susse-Fondeur Art Foundry from a three-dimensional scan of the plaster model used by sculptor Auguste Bartholdi in 1878 to build “Liberty Enlightening the World,” enlarged to the model that France gave to the United States in 1886 to commemorate the centennial of American independence, and since then the Statue of Liberty has become America’s s symbol.
According to sources, the statue is placed in a special technical as well as temperature-guaranteed insurance container and will depart from Le Havre on the ship Tosca between June 19 and 21. The statue will make its first stop in New York, at Liberty Island, not far from the huge statue of her sister Lady Liberty, to be displayed on July 4, the Fourth of July.
The statue’s journey will conclude with the inauguration of the statue on July 14, the French National Day, in the garden of the residence of the French Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C.
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