Tell gets his Big Apple
A Swiss artist known for illuminating mountains and monuments around the world will unveil a four-metre-high statue of William Tell in New York City on July 31, the day before Swiss national day. Gerry Hofstetter has erected a polyester copy of the statue of the Swiss freedom fighter on Rat Island, a small rocky outcrop in City Island Harbor. The island is owned by two Swiss expats living in the US. The artist plans to travel to the island to do the unveiling together with the two island owners and 80 invited guests, accompanied by a Swiss band. Hofstetter says he has placed Tell in New York to “support Lady Liberty, so they can together strengthen human rights as fundamental values of mankind”. “It was the Americans who invented democracy. We Swiss took it over and refined it,” he adds. The original Tell monument, carved from stone, stands in the main square in the village of Altdorf in central Switzerland. Hofstetter makes a clear distinction between the ...