Did the US purchase the Statue of Liberty from France?

Answer 1

Not strictly speaking thus! the statue was a (Gift_ of the French people and of course was designed by the French sculptor Barholdi who had as a technical advisor one Gustave Eiffel ( Tower fame). The land for the statue had to be purchased from the Federal government, it was an Army Fort at the time, as late as the twenties Bedloes Island- now Liberty Island, was a military brig and may have even held some illegal aliens. The Statue was ill-starred from the start, it was completed l0 years too late, the centennial of US Independence was l876 not l886. it is known the Newspaper barons such as Joseph Pulitzer made a big sound-off in favor of the statue- when the federal government was reluctant to spend federal money on a (frivolous) project of at best, Propaganda-art value. There is no truth to the rumor-which was at least chronologically possible, that Sarah Bernhardt was the Model for the statue. Bartholdi by the way was Jewish, and is buried inthe cemetery of the Israelites in a Paris area grave yard. there is a small scale Statue of Liberty on or near his grave!