Rep. Anthony Weiner's idea to sell a city owned statue on Craigslist was a stupid idea, and now the art experts agree! The Triumph of Civic Virtue statue was originally in Manhattan outside of City Hall, but it was banished to Queens in 1941, nearly 20 years after its debut. The statue has gone neglected and is now need of a makeover, but some locals want it banished again, claiming it celebrates domestic violence. (The statue shows a man, civic virtue, conquering the sirens of vice and corruption... by stepping on them.)
An art professor from Stony Brook told the Daily News she's "more offended by [Weiner's] little campaign than I am by any of the imagery at all." And an art history professor from Indiana told them, "It would be unethical and egregiously misguided to dispose of it that way. It makes the people involved look pretty stupid." Another jab at the Queens folk was taken by a Frederick MacMonnies expert (he created the sculpture in question), who said the whole thing reflects poorly on the borough, which apparently has "no regard at all for American history, American tradition." (Maybe that's why nothing is landmarked there!)
Currently the statue has an open invite to come live at the Green-Wood Cemetery, where some of MacMonnies family is interred. The statue could cost as much as $2 million to restore.
