Statue of Liberty's original torch gets a new home

Dec 26, 2018 965

BY: Victoria Bekiempis

When Larry Sidoti’s grandparents came to America from Italy after weeks at sea in the early 1900s, they were first greeted by the Statue of Liberty. “The joy that they felt – they were ecstatic and very cautious, because this was a totally new life for them,” Sidoti told the Guardian. “My grandfather had said to me, a number of times, that she stood for freedom, and stood for opportunities.”

More than 100 years later, Sidoti was on Liberty Island as Phelps Construction Group’s general superintendent, supervising the move of the statue’s original torch into its new home – a $100m, 26,000 sq ft museum on Liberty Island, which is set to open in May. The beginning of the torch’s journey to this venue can be traced back to the 1980s, when the Statue of Liberty underwent a huge restoration to mark its centenary.

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SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/

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