Boston’s 160-Year-Old Benjamin Franklin Statue Is Going to Art Rehab
Taking a page out of Meghan Trainor’s Jimmy Fallon performance, a 160-year-old statue of Benjamin Franklin located at Old City Hall took a hard tumble over the weekend.
According to the Boston Globe, gusts of wind knocked over the bronze statue at approximately 1 p.m. on Sunday. Mayor Marty Walsh’s spokeswoman Bonnie McGilpin said that no one was injured by the spill, but it did cause a crack in the ground.
City spokeswoman says high winds helped topple Ben Franklin statue on Boston's Freedom Trail https://t.co/HF5VAA7QKx pic.twitter.com/3gEkkeyD0J
— ABC News (@ABC) May 17, 2016
Great day for flying kites. Bad day for Ben Franklin. Statue outside old City Hall came crashing down from the wind. pic.twitter.com/vEhGWECXp0
— Tim Caputo (@Tim_Caputo) May 16, 2016
Karin Goodfellow, director of the Boston Art Commission, told the Boston Herald that the Freedom Trail icon is heading to art rehab in order to assess the damage.
“It does not look like anything that dramatic happened,” Goodfellow told the Herald. “But it doesn’t mean there isn’t any damage that needs to be repaired before re-installation.”
The statue, which was erected in 1856 to honor Franklin’s 150th birthday, will be transported to the Watertown sculpture studio and conservator Daedalus for restoration.
Goodfellow revealed the the entire re-installation process will likely take around two months.