One Artist Suggests Melting Down the Paterno Statue – Is it Legal?
On Sunday July 22, Penn State University removed the famed bronze statue of Joe Paterno, which was located outside its football stadium, one day before the NCAA announced a slate of severe sanctions against the university arising from its role in the Sandusky child molestation scandal. A few days later, news reports emerged that sculptor Larry Nowlan suggested the statue be melted down and recycled into a “healing memorial” for victims of child abuse. While this proposal may have both spiritual and artistic merit, there is one problem: Nowlan is not the sculptor who created the Paterno statue. That distinction belongs to Angelo Di Maria who created the clay model for the statue from a photograph he took of Paterno at a football game, as well as artists Wilfer Buitrago and Yesid Gomez who worked with Di Maria to construct the final bronze statue. Continue reading »