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This Remarkable Statue of Liberty Model Made by the Sculptor of the Original Has a New Summer Home at the Smithsonian Castle
Key takeaways
- “I think you can ask a kid almost anywhere in the U.S., ‘What is this?’ And they’ll be like, ‘I’ve seen that before.
- Lemmey invites museumgoers to view the Liberty model as not only a monument, but a work of art that had public support and became a national icon.
- In the 1870s, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi began designing the famous statue that now stands on an island in New York Harbor.
Capitol As curator of sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Karen Lemmey has watched the faces of everyone from kindergarteners to retirees light up when they see a nearly four-foot tall Lady Liberty, holding her tablet and raising her torch high.
“I think you can ask a kid almost anywhere in the U.S., ‘What is this?’ And they’ll be like, ‘I’ve seen that before. Is that the Statue of Liberty?’” Lemmey says. “It remains familiar, and it asserts itself. And that’s really hard for a monument from more than 100 years ago.”
Lemmey invites museumgoers to view the Liberty model as not only a monument, but a work of art that had public support and became a national icon.
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