Charging Bull and the luck-rubbing ritual

The bronze Charging Bull by Arturo Di Modica was illegally installed near the New York Stock Exchange in December 1989 and later moved to its current site at Bowling Green. Since its installation the sculpture has become the focus of urban folklore; visitors commonly touch or rub parts of the statue as a luck-bringing ritual, a practice widely reported in news accounts and travel guides. The artist's unsanctioned placement of the work and the public's ritual interaction with it are well documented. The sculpture remains a frequent subject of photographs and popular narratives about Wall Street.