An iconic bronze statue of fictional heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa will be displayed inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the first time beginning Saturday to mark the original film’s 50th anniversary.
The statue, which has stood outside the museum for more than 20 years, was a longtime fixture on the museum steps, according to NPR member station WHYY. Its move indoors is part of the museum’s exhibition Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments, which includes more than 150 works by dozens of artists and artifacts more than 2,000 years old.
“Blending the worlds of art, sports, and popular culture, Rising Up will take on the life of monuments by exploring the profound meanings and mythologies of the Rocky statue,” the museum said on its website. The show will use the Rocky statue to examine how monuments are made and remade by artists, communities, and time, and to prompt conversations about memory, identity, power, and representation in public art.
The bronze figure, with the boxer’s gloved hands raised in triumph, has become as central to Philadelphia’s cultural identity as the Liberty Bell or Independence Hall. Originally a prop left after filming Rocky III in 1982, the statue long provoked debate in the art world over whether a movie prop qualified as art. Its placement inside the museum signals a shift in how definitions of art can evolve.
“The Rocky statue is the most visited and photographed public artwork in Philadelphia, attracting nearly as many annual visitors as the Statue of Liberty,” said Louis Marchesano, deputy director of curatorial affairs and conservation. “Rising Up is an opportunity for the art museum to reframe the narrative around Rocky and the steps, placing it in the context of Philadelphia’s civic and cultural identity.”
The exhibition runs through Aug. 2.