France is sending a new Statue of Liberty to the US for July 4, but this time it’s mini
Lady Liberty has a “little sister” and she’s on her way to the U.S. from France.
A near 10-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty will be making two holiday appearances this summer, according to a joint press release from the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C., the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts and logistics company CMA CGM Group.
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The bronze recreation, which was made from the same plaster model that French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi used when he created the original landmark statue in 1878, will be displayed in New York City and the District of Columbia for a limited time this summer.
Lady Liberty has a “little sister” and she’s on her way to the U.S. from France for a limited time. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
On June 19, the replica will “board” a ship in Le Havre, a major port in Upper Normandy and begin a nine-day journey across the Atlantic. Upon arrival in New York, the mini statue will be prepped for exhibition.
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While in The Big Apple, the replica will be put on display on Ellis Island located in New York harbor from July 1 to July 5, just in time for Independence Day visitors. The distance between Ellis Island and Liberty Island where the original statue rests is about three-quarters of a mile.
The statue will then be taken to Washington, D.C., where it will make its inaugural debut in the garden of the French ambassador’s residence on July 14 – which in France is Bastille Day, a national holiday that celebrates liberty and commemorates the turning point in the French revolution.
Unlike her brief stop in NYC, visitors will have at least 10 years to see the replica in the nation’s capital, according to the Associated Press.
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In an email to Fox News, French Ambassador Philippe Etienne wrote, “I am truly honored to receive this symbol of the friendship of the French and American peoples.”
He went on to add that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol that “enlightens the world” and has “a value [that’s] still so necessary.”
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Before it was decided that the replica would be calling Washington, D.C. a temporary home, the 1,000-pound statue had been on display for a decade at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, a French industrial design museum in Paris.
The replica was crafted by Susse Fondeur, a French foundry that used a “lost wax method” to capture the statue’s fine details, according to a New York Times article from 2011.
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It has been 135 years since the original Statue of Liberty opened to the public on Ellis Island. The 305-foot monument greeted nearly 14 million immigrants who entered the U.S. through New York from 1886 to 1924, according to the National Park Service.
