Charging Bull, Bronze sculpture in Bowling Green, United States
Charging Bull is a bronze figure in Manhattan showing a bull in full motion, with muscles tense and hooves set in an attacking stance. The sculpture weighs around 3 tons, stands over 3 meters tall, and extends nearly 5 meters in length.
Sculptor Arturo Di Modica placed the work without permission in front of the New York Stock Exchange in December 1989, following the stock market crash of 1987. The city later moved the figure to Bowling Green Park, where it has remained since.
The bull's name comes from its pose, leaning back as if about to charge. A 2002 Washington Post article noted the custom of rubbing its nose, horns and testicles for good luck, and children often climb the sculpture. It has also drawn anti-capitalist criticism, as during Occupy Wall Street in 2011.
The sculpture stands in the small Bowling Green Park near Wall Street and is accessible around the clock. Those wanting to avoid crowds should come early in the morning or late evening, when tourist numbers drop off.
The bull was cast at the Bedi-Makky Art Foundry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Di Modica spent $360,000 of his own money on it. In 2019 a man from Dallas struck the sculpture with a banjo, denting one horn; Di Modica returned to repair it himself.
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