Liberty

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A gift of friendship from the French people to the United States, Bartholdi’s colossal Statue of Liberty famously celebrates freedom. Inspired by the American abolition of slavery, the idea for the monument originated in 1865 but was pursued only after the Third French Republic was established in 1870. This "committee model" is part of an edition of replicas that were sold to help finance the project. Like the final monument, it shows an austere Lady Liberty raising the torch of Enlightenment with the broken chains of tyranny at her feet.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art