Di Modica’s Bull Statue Placed Near Amsterdam’s Exchange

A bronze statue of a bull by sculptor Arturo Di Modica, similar to his work near the New York Stock Exchange, was placed in front of NYSE Euronext (NYX)’s Amsterdam bourse overnight as an antidote to Europe’s debt crisis.

“Europe is in an economic crisis. Think positive! Together we will go up!” read leaflets handed out at the square in front of the bourse by Jan-Willem Loor, a spokesman for Di Modica.

Di Modica, 71, placed his 3.5 ton ’‘Charging Bull” in New York City on Broad Street on Dec. 15, 1989, and saw the sculpture as the perfect response to the Wall Street crash, according to his website. The work was removed the same day and is now located at the intersections of Broadway and Morris Street.

“It would be good for everybody in Europe to have some kind of kick from the mascot,” Di Modica said in an interview with Bloomberg News today. “I would prefer it to stay here, like in New York, near the stock market,” he said.

Di Modica, who made the sculpture in Wyoming, shipped it to Sicily and then moved it by truck to Amsterdam, said it took 10 minutes to put the 2.5-ton bull in front of the exchange, using a crane.

The sculpture in Amsterdam was brought to the city with the support of a Dutch family, said Loor, adding Di Modica wants to symbolically donate the bronze bull.

The family saw the bull in New York and loved it, Di Modica said.

Muse highlights include Scott Reyburn on the auction market, Jorg von Uthmann on Paris art, Warwick Thompson on London theater and Jason Harper on cars.

To contact the reporter on this story: Martijn van der Starre in Amsterdam at vanderstarre@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.