NVM, the BFF sculpture was only painted to look like bronze.
I thought it looked like Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons.
The statue of Dante Alighieri outside the Dante Alighieri Center in Cambridge Massachusetts is truly frightening. It looks like my old Mother Superior from Catholic School. The photograph doesn’t adequately convey how soulless the statue looks
But did you make that remark within earshot?
That is the statue of a man who’s been through hell.
It seems really stupid and dangerous to have a bronze statue sticking out of an ice rink. It looks like it’s in the corner, but still-- if an inexperienced skater loses control and is barreling for the corner, unable to stop, better they run into a plexiglass wall than be clotheslined by a bronze arm 
From the article:
“It was like a bolt out of the blue,” she said after the newspaper sent her the images. “I’m sorry the city allowed something like this, because it affects Luciano’s image and the respect he deserves. It’s just not right.”
Andrea Biancini, the mayor of Pesaro, appeared to aggravate the issue by sharing an image of the statue in the ice rink alongside a hashtag encouraging skaters to “give Pavarotti a high five”.
He later apologised, admitting that the local council had “made a mistake”.
Building the ice rink around it is incredibly stupid, but if anyone thinks people weren’t already high fiving that statue they’re dreaming. If a statue is accessible to the public, like in the middle of a plaza, people are going to shake it’s hand, high five it, take obscene pictures, etc.
You should see which bit of the statue of Cristiano Ronaldo in Funchal harbour is shiniest from people rubbing it.
I think the George H.W. Bush statue in Houston is pretty good work.
I wonder what will be his shiniest bit.
Eh, nobody’s going to shine him.
He’s never looked so lifelike.
Statue Burnishing is definitely a thing. Victor Noir’s memorial in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris similarly has a burnished erection.
Long before I read about this phenomena, I had been observing it, and was always interested in what parts of the statue were most burnished, indicating that most people had handled it. Often it’s hands. On the “This is the Place” monument in Emigration Canyon outside Salt Lake City, it’s the horns on the oxen. On the “Make Way for Ducklings” statues in Boston’s Public Garden, it’s the backs of the mama duck and the ducklings for all the little kids sitting on the statues). Or Red Auerbach’s Cigar in Quincy Marketplace in Boston. Or a lot of statue’s hands in various other places. Noses are another target. Or toes, if that’s the only part easily reachable (like John Harvard’s statue in Harvard Yard)
One that stood out – because you couldn’t miss it – was the bust of an African girl in one of the African halls at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Her very conical breasts were polished to a high gleam, while the rest of the bust had the usual patina. I suspect all those school groups that were herded through the museum. The statue wasn’t protected behind any sort of barrier, but was tantalizingly available. I think it’s been removed now
I’m not surprised that her boobs were anonymously groped so often I’m surprised that there aren’t more examples. One thing I’ve noticed is that the newer bronze statues (like the TV Land ones put up twenty years ago) don’t show signs of burnishing at all. There’s one of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stevens in Salem, MA that has become an institution, and I don’t see any signs of burnshing, despite that fact that people frequently hold the statue while getting their pictures taken with it. Yet the end of her broomstick, or the points of the moon, or her boobs show no signs of polishing. I haven’t noticed any burnishing on Ralph Kramden’s statue outside the Port Authority Bus Station in New York, either. They must be using a metal alloy formulation and/or a coating that minimizes the effect.
A more respectable tradition is that of students in Paris rubbing the foot of the writer Montaigne for luck before their exams:
At the University of Maryland the bronze statue of Testudo the turtle gets similar treatment around exams.
The people Tom Lee rescued organized a fund raiser and gifted him a home. He was given a job. Tom was invited to the White House and met President Calvin Coolidge.
Link Tom Lee ... the Memphis Hero
There is a statue in Tom Lee park.
Link https://www.tennesseedailyjournal.com/article/776914693-2025-marks-100th-anniversary-of-tom-lee-s-dramatic-rescue-of-32-from-the-mississippi-river-at-memphis
The park floods and there are photos with water under the statue. That’s probably why it’s built so high.
It occurred to me that statue looks fragile.
I can easily imagine kids climbing on it. Kids might sit on the outstretched arms. It doesn’t look like they can take much weight without breaking.
My University has a giant Horseshoe.
Trad has it that if you put one hand on each side of the shoe, you make a wish.
I wouldn’t worry. Bronze is remarkably strong. They used to make cannons from it, after all.