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.”
Phillip Quartucci, 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.
“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 Quartucci, 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 Quartucci “lives on in the name of the statue.”
“It’s a shame that he is gone,” Walter said.
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