PHILADELPHIA – By a split decision, the Rocky statue has won the right to stand below the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
By a 6-2 vote, the city's Art Commission voted yesterday in favor of relocating the 2,000-pound, 8-foot statue of Rocky Balboa onto a cement foundation on the lawn, just north of the Art Museum steps.
Plans call for the statue to be moved today and unveiled tomorrow at a 6 p.m. dedication ceremony.
Sylvester Stallone, writer and star of “Rocky,” is expected. And Jimmy Binns, a longtime advocate of moving the statue to the museum area, said he expected “hundreds of thousands” to attend.
As the sun sets, Rocky will be shown on the museum steps.
A favorable decision was anticipated, but, as with a boxing match, the final decision remained in doubt.
Just last month, six of the members deadlocked, 3-3.
The mayor, the Fairmount Park Commission, and the Art Museum had all approved moving the 25-year-old bronze statue of Rocky Balboa – created as a prop for the movie “Rocky III” – to the new site.
And events have been planned all week, including a Rocky and Adrian look-alike contest today sponsored by the Philadelphia Daily News, as part of the first-ever “Philly Loves Rocky Week.”
Yesterday, the commission gave all those plans a big thumbs-up.
“In terms of this as a cultural icon over thirty years, it has beared the test of time,” said commission member Emanuel Kelly, who voted for the move.
There was little debate, but each of the eight voting commission members in attendance gave an explanation. One opponent, Miguelangel Corzo, said to him the issue was not whether the statue was considered art. He said there is a urinal inside the museum that is considered art.
To him it was more a question of the role of the commission, and doing what's best for the city. He felt the idea of Rocky and the inspiration it provided was already represented by the steps themselves, and the people who run up them every day, and didn't need a physical symbol.
But most commission members felt the statue was beloved and belonged near the museum.
Plans call for walkways to and around the statue, which will reach its arms up 13 feet as its stands on a new bronze pedestal. The statue, city officials said, is in need of washing and waxing, as well as other small repairs. The relocation and repairs are all to be paid for by Stallone, city officials said.
“It's a wonderful symbol of what people can accomplish with hard work and dedication, and this is what Philadelphia stands for,” Naidoff said.
