Posted on 06/17/2016 7:39:17 AM PDT by cll
A giant statue of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was unveiled in Arecibo on the northern coast of Puerto Rico on Tuesday (June 14).
Russian-based sculptor, Zurab Tsereteli, created the 268 ft (81,68 meter) monument from 2,500 pieces of bronze and steel manufactured in Russia and some 2,000 sq. ft (185.80 sq. meters) of copper sheets.
The statue, entitled 'Birth of a New World,' and weighing in at 6,500 tons, is almost twice the height of New York's Statue of Liberty without its base, and is double the height of Rio's Christ the Redeemer.
The artwork took over 110,000 hours to assemble. Tsereteli, who studied at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts before relocating to Moscow, began working on the structure, that portrays Columbus standing at the helm of the Santa Maria ship, in 1992.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Actually, he made it to Australia.
It’s a bit closer to China...
He was not known to swear, but when he got really, REALLY, red-faced angry, the only oath he was known to utter was:
"God take you."
I’ve never understood why Puerto Rico hasn’t been made into a manufacturing powerhouse being situated on an oceanic crossroads like it is.
I wonder who paid for it. This is one of a set of two - the other is in Seville Spain where he started his voyage.
Local politics suck, too.
It’s a private project. Initially, a nutty mayor from a municipality across the bay from San Juan had accepted it, but various government afterwards rejected it because of cost estimates.
Now a private investor got it, and is developing a park around it.
Thank you then for the correction!!
I hope it’s not in the path of incoming aircraft into LMM airport....
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