For nearly 140 years, everyone arriving in New York has been greeted by the same landmark. Rising above Liberty Island, the Statue of Liberty has become one of the world’s most recognizable monuments: a symbol of freedom, the first sight of America for millions of immigrants and an inseparable part of New York’s skyline.
But there is one surprising detail: Lady Liberty is not originally from New York.
She was built in Paris.
This autumn, the Museum of Arts and Crafts revisits that largely forgotten chapter of the monument’s history. Opening on Sept. 22, 2026, the Museum of Arts and Crafts presents "Lady Liberty: Sweat, Daring, and Genius," an immersive exhibition exploring the French craftsmanship behind the famous Statue of Liberty.
Long before crossing the Atlantic, the monument took shape in workshops on Rue de Chazelles in Paris’ 17th borough, where hundreds of craftsmen transformed sculptor Auguste Bartholdi’s vision into reality. Between 1881 and 1884, around 300 copper sheets were hammered by hand and assembled at the workshops of Gaget, Gauthier & Cie before being dismantled, shipped across the ocean and reassembled in New York Harbor.
By the 1860s, France had emerged from decades of political upheaval that saw monarchies, empires and republics replace one another. The meaning of liberty remained at the heart of national debate. Across the Atlantic, the United States had emerged from the Civil War following the abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment.
It was in this political climate that Bartholdi imagined this gift from France to America in celebration of the common ideals of liberty. The statue was inaugurated in New York in October 1886. It was actually intended to commemorate the centennial of American independence in 1876, but the project proved far more expensive and more technically demanding than anticipated.
The story links two of the world’s greatest landmarks through one engineer: Gustave Eiffel.
Bartholdi designed the statue’s exterior. After the death of architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, Gustave Eiffel and his engineering team developed the framework that allowed the thin copper skin to move independently from its iron support structure. Building a 46-meter copper figure capable of withstanding wind, temperature changes and its own substantial weight required an engineering breakthrough. The monument could flex slightly in the wind, which reduced the risk of structural damage.
Just a few years later, Gustave Eiffel would bring the same spirit of engineering innovation to another Parisian landmark, the Eiffel Tower.
The Museum of Arts and Crafts exhibition celebrates the hundreds of anonymous workers whose skills made Lady Liberty possible, instead of focusing solely on Bartholdi and Eiffel. Through reconstructed workshops, 3D installations and an immersive soundscape, visitors are transported into the Parisian workshops where the monument slowly emerged.
“Lady Liberty: Sweat, Daring, and Genius” follows every stage of construction, from Bartholdi’s original 2.11-meter (6.92-foot) model, which was enlarged sixteenfold, to the painstaking shaping of approximately 300 copper plates over full-scale wooden moulds. Visitors encounter rare objects from the museum’s collections, many displayed publicly for the first time. The objects include models of the statue’s head, a full-scale copper index finger weighing around 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and an engraved copper fragment bearing Bartholdi’s monogram.
Another side of the project is Bartholdi’s talent for promotion. To help finance construction, he opened the workshops to visitors and sold miniature replicas. He turned the construction itself into a fundraising tool.
More than a century later, the Statue of Liberty belongs not only to France or to the United States, but to the world. In the 250th anniversary year of the United States Declaration of Independence, Paris offers a rare opportunity to look beyond the familiar silhouette.
For a moment, Lady Liberty returns to the city where her story began.
