On Tuesday, December 14th, the artist Kristen Visbal gathered with a group of activists and local politicians next to her most recognizable work, the, which sits opposite the New York Stock Exchange. The statue depicts a little girl standing defiantly, with her hands on her hips, and was initially placed in front of the “Charging Bull” statue, a few blocks away, though it was eventually moved to its current location, on Broad Street.
State Street, which is based in Boston, is one of the largest asset-management firms in the world, with $3.8 trillion under management. The company employed the “Fearless Girl” statue in part to promote a new index fund that purported to support gender diversity in corporate senior-leadership roles. In May, after the statue was installed, Visbal and State Street signed an agreement outlining their respective rights to the statue.
Nevertheless, the statue continued to draw crowds of people who spilled into the street. In April, 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the statue would be moved to its current position, outside the stock exchange. Throughout 2017 and 2018, Visbal sold replicas of “Fearless Girl” in several countries for prices ranging from $250,000 for full-sized copies to $6,650 for miniature, 22.5-inch ones.