Wall Street Bull Story

The Story behind the Wall Street Bull

Bowling Green is North America's oldest park. It is located on Manhattan in the Financial District of New York City. It was used initially as a cattle market. It gets its name because the first Dutch settlers used it for lawn bowling. The park is a pleasant place with a small patch of green, benches, flowers and a round fountain. You can sit, have a sandwich and rest your feet. Today, at Bowling Green Park you'll see a massive bronze statue of a bull. 

The bronze bull that stands in Bowling Green Park poised to charge up Broadway first appeared in front of the New York Stock Exchange on December 15, 1989. It was created by Italian-born Soho artist, Arturo Di Modica, who deposited the 7,000-pound bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the middle of the night without permission. The next morning Financial District workers were confronted by a sleek, 18-foot-long bronze bull, head down and nostrils flaring. In a flyer distributed that day, the artist stated that the stock market crash of 1987 was his inspiration. He created the bull as a symbol of "strength, power and hope of the American people for the future." 

However, the New York Police Department was not pleased. NYPD said it obstructed traffic and had no permit. The New York Stock Exchange hired a truck to have it hauled away that afternoon. It was penned in a police impound lot. Not an easy undertaking.

Even though the bull had been seen for less than 8 hours, the public wanted it! After a few days in its "pen", New York City Parks Department Commissioner Henry J. Stern arranged for the Bull to be given a temporary stomping ground at the north end of Bowling Green Park which is on Wall Street. It remains there today as an icon embodying the bullish strength and determination of Wall Street.  

In 2003 the artist tried to get the city to pay $300,000 for the huge bull. They refused. A Las Vegas hotel decided they'd buy it. Henry Stern, who was no longer a Parks Commissioner, led the campaign to keep it in New York. It is still there - as a "gift" from the artist. Arturo is now deceased.

Today the "Charging Bull" is an accepted NYC landmark and is a favorite stop for tourists. Those seeking to make their fortune in the stock market will rub the bull for luck. This bull has several names: Bowling Green Bull, Charging Bull, Good Luck Bull, Wall Street Bull, NYC Bull, New York Bull, NYSE Bull, Stock Exchange Bull. Some even call it the Merrill Lynch Bull. You don’t need to be a Wall Streeter to love this bull. You can just love bulls. You might be in a squadron or on a team that uses a bull as its mascot since the bull communicates strength. The Navy has a ship named Bull Halsey! You will find variations of this bull on WallStreetGifts.com. 

We sent a photographer to Wall Street who took several photos of the bull. He spent lots of time using PhotoShop to eliminate all of the people surrounding the bull. Thus, our photo of this bull is ours exclusively. We even have a t-shirt with this bull photo. 

 

ROME — Arturo di Modica, the artist who sculpted the iconic “Charging Bull,” in New York, has died in his hometown, Vittoria Sicily, at age 80. The sculptor lived in New York for more than 40 years. He arrived in 1973 and opened an art studio in the city’s SoHo neighborhood. With the help of a truck and crane, Di Modica installed the bronze bull sculpture in New York’s financial district without permission on the night of Dec. 16, 1989.

The artist reportedly spent $350,000 of his money to create the 3.5-ton bronze beast that came to symbolize the resilience of the U.S. economy after a 1987 stock market crash. “It was a period of crisis. The New York Stock Exchange lost in one night more than 20 percent, and so many people were plunged into the blackest of depressions." He conceived the bull sculpture as “a joke, a provocation." It became one of New York’s most visited monuments. Di Modica and some 40 friends, used a crane and a truck to deposit the bull in a lightning-swift operation on Wall Street, without official authorization.

“After a couple of scouting trips, I had discovered that at night, the police made its rounds on Wall Street every 7-8 minutes.” So, the bull had to be left in 5 minutes! When the sculptor and his friends arrived at the spot he’d picked, they were surprised to see a Christmas tree had been erected there. They deposited the bronze bull anyway, and, as the artist told it, uncorked a bottle of Champagne.