Vittoria, dead sculptor Arturo Di Modica: famous for “Bull of Wall Street”

VITTORIA – The sculptor Arturo di Modica Vittoria died last night, in his house in the Pozzo Bollente district. He was 80 years old, celebrated a few months ago. Arturo di Modica had spent most of his life in the United States. He is the author of the famous “Wall Street Bull”, known in the US as Wall Street Bull or Charging Bull: a large bronze sculpture that he made entirely at his own expense in 1987, after the collapse of the Wall Street Stock Exchange. Di Modica, who lived in the US in those years, wanted to symbolize the mighty strength and the ability to rebirth of the American people in difficult times, as well as the stock market to recover. The work should have been removed, but today it has become one of the best known symbols of the States and one of the most visited monuments. Back in his city, he had built his home outside the city, in the Pozzo Bollente district. In recent years, he mostly lived in Vittoria and had returned less and less to the United States. He had cherished a dream and was working on one last great work that he wanted to give to his city: two 40-meter bronze horses facing each other over the Ippari river: a dream that remained unfinished.

Arturo Di Modica with one of his works

He wanted to make his home a center of global aggregation of young artists. The last public appearance last September when the four candidates for mayor of Vittoria (Salvatore Di falco, Piero Gurrieri, Salvatore Sallemi, Francesco Aiello) went to his house to plan these projects. There were numerous messages on his death. The mortuary will be set up in Vittoria at the former convent of the Graces, near Piazza del Popolo.

One of the many works by Di Modica in Vittoria

The funeral will take place on Monday afternoon at 4 pm in the Church of San Giovanni Battista, in Vittoria. The Extraordinary Commission proclaimed city mourning for Monday. Victory by birth, at nineteen Arturo Di Modica left Sicily to go to Florence. Here he attended the Free School of Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1973 he decided to move to New York where he opened a studio in Crosby Street, in the Soho neighborhood. 1987 is the year that gave him fame, thanks to a gesture born almost like a college girl: without asking for authorization, he placed the bull in front of Wall Street, a sculpture that cost him 350 thousand dollars.

The statue of the hipparine horse in Vittoria