HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A 40-foot sculpture of three New York City firefighters raising the U.S. flag at ground zero is being offered on eBay, but there’s a catch: You can’t take it home.
Bidding on the towering tribute to heroes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will start Wednesday and end May 22, said Pat Huddleston, a Marietta, Ga., attorney who is the court-appointed receiver in an investment fraud case involving the sculpture. The auction will start at $500,000, he said.
Huddleston said proceeds from the Internet auction will benefit defrauded investors. The buyer will be recognized on a plaque as having donated the statue to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit in Emmitsburg that memorializes fire heroes and offers counseling and scholarships to their families.
“It’s a disgrace that such a symbolic memorial, which represents the best of America, is caught in the middle of a corporate scandal,” Huddleston said. “We are hoping to bring honor back to the memorial by rededicating it, but first we need a willing donor who would like to become the new benefactor.”
Huddleston turned to eBay after trying for more than two years to sell the bronze-and-steel statue for at least $425,000. The highest offer he got was $10,000. Sculptor Stanley Watts of Kearns, Utah, valued the piece in 2006 at $4.8 million.
Watts said he created the piece, titled, “To Lift a Nation,” to honor the 343 New York Fire Department workers who died trying to rescue victims of the terrorist attack.
Huddleston speculated that the financial meltdown deterred would-be buyers, and that some balked because the money wouldn’t aid the Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
Huddleston said he pitched the piece to corporations and even tried contacting producers of the firefighter-themed FX television series “Rescue Me.”
The work was dedicated in 2007 at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park on the grounds of the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, about 70 miles north of Washington. It must stay there under Watts’ agreement with the foundation.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
