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Hey, whatever happened to the giant naked-guy statue in front of the Pru?
By adamg on Thu, 05/03/2018 - 2:46pm
Aline Kaplan tries to find out what happened to the statue on Boylston Street that disappeared in 2014 so we could finally get a Tesla showroom, but gets no answers.
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Comments
Same as the Chinatown Gate?
Perhaps it was appropriated by the same thieving contractor who took two of the four lion statues at the Chinatown Gate.
Inspiring the famous song ...
"I wonder where the lions are"
Don't you mean
"The lions sleep tonight (with the fishes)"?
related topic
What happened to the busts of Indian heads that were part of the decor of every branch of Shawmut Bank?
Sold off?
I'm assuming those were sold off when Shawmut Bank was no more - I swear I've seen at least one in an antique shop at some point over the years. But those weren't public property that mysteriously got "disappeared."
Word out of the Beacon Hill is Byron Hefner is to
blame.
Yes, while we're at it...the
Yes, while we're at it...the awesome diorama at the top of the Hancock tower? It described the story of Boston's role in the American revolution and had cool lights.
All these things are hidden in some great storage space, somewhere...
Walter Muir Whitehill
I worked at the Hancock when the Observatory closed to the public just after 9/11, ostensibly for security reasons but more likely because Hancock's CEO finally had an excuse to free up some prime real estate. For maybe the year or so before the exhibits were dismantled, Hancock employees could still go up to the Observatory to enjoy the view, look at the Bicentennial-flavored exhibits, and (if it happened to be turned on) listen to Walter Muir Whitehill (he of "A Topographical History of Boston") explain in his Brahmin tones how Boston's neighborhoods developed over the course of three hundred years.
I once asked Hancock's archivist if she had a recording of the Whitehill lecture. She didn't but for a consolation prize, she gave me a copy of the sheet music to the John Hancock Company Song.
Not surprisingly, it's awful.
He's
Still undergoing gender reassignment surgery,.
How about...
The lobby of the Tesla factory?
"Man Reaches For The Stars"
Having a pre-adolescent thrill for the New York World's Fair in 1964, I found the Prudential Center's sculpture a real thrill as well. It was by the same artist who did, what later was entitled, "Rocket Thrower". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Thrower
I'm sad that that part of history is gone.
Art and connection,....gone.
probably
moved out into the outskirts, never to return.. like the anti-communist statue of the warriors on horseback that used to be on charles st. @ beacon.. now it's out in the seaport where you have to make it a destination in order to see it.. :-(
I was originally against moving the soldiers on horseback statue
especially because at the time the seaport area was relatively desolate. Then I read somewhere (either boston.com or UH, my only two sources of news, mostly UH) that the statue depicted Polish soldiers. The new location is nearer to the closest thing we have to a Polish neighborhood in Boston. And finally, the statue is less likely to have people pissing on it in the Seaport than on the Common. So it's not too bad.
The Partisans
Thanks, I'd wondered where that piece was moved to.
I'll make that journey
Where exactly is it?
It's on World Trade Center
It's on World Trade Center Ave, the road/bridge that connects the BCEC to the upper level of the World Trade Center. The statue is outside the Silver Line headhouse.
Due to adjacent construction
Due to adjacent construction it was fenced off when I walked by a couple weeks ago.
Years ago...
... a friend and I were passing by that statue. He mimicked the pose and exclaimed, “What!! You call this a paycheck?!!!”
Still makes me chuckle.
Digitus infamis...
I recall passing the plaza as a kid, before the statue was unveiled. From the way it was draped, the middle finger of the left hand stuck up above the cloth. So it looked like whatever was underneath was flipping the bird at the then War Memorial Auditorium. It continued to look that way to me even after the statue was exposed.
The City has it
One of the city agencies has it. I forget which though. During a community meeting with the Parks Department about rebuilding Smith Playground in Allston, Cathy Baker-Eclipse asked whether the community would like to have the statue in the park. She's probably a good person to ask where it is/if there are any plans for it yet.
TL;DR, A city agency has it, they're waiting/looking for the right place to put it.