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Really more of a curiosity: "The Statue of Liberty originally had golden earrings until they were stolen in 1908, a crime which remains unsolved to this day."
Do you have the reference for this? I was not able to uncover any information that supports this. Thanks
-Nathan
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Those State Department bastards must have re-classified everything again. Damn. After we worked so hard to make all the evidence available.
While out on one of our frequent fact-finding trips during the summer, we learned about the golden earrings while visiting the Statue. The story of the theft was told to us by the tour guide and there's a plaque there describing the event. Apparently, they were stolen during the night when the island staff were at a Broadway show and dinner, which was a gift from the City for their service. There's lots of other information surrounding the theft, which maybe some other fact-checkers can dig out of the archives.
Interestingly enough, the '70's rock band Golden Earring ("Radar Love", et al) took their name from that crime.
Posted By: TaedApparently, they were stolen during the night when the island staff were at a Broadway show and dinner, which was a gift from the City for their service.
This itself has been called into question by conspiracy theorists. Apparently, there's no documentation in the city that the staff were actually gifted with a night off to see a Broadway show, and yet each member of the staff can show a timesheet with PTO (paid time off) for that night.
The Statue of Liberty has a number of intersting other facts.
Italo Marconi, a Wall Street pushcart vendor patented the ice-cream cone in 1903. The concept took off after the World's Fair in St Louis in 1904. In a newspaper interview he said he got the idea from the torch the Status of Liberty holds in her right hand, something he saw every day.
The French had wanted the Lady to be called the Liberty, Egality and Fraternity Enlightening the World based on the French revolutionary motto. The USA abbreviated this to Liberty Enlightening the World.
After it was opened the statue started to list to port (literally) and had to be straightened and under-pinned.
The first attempt at the Las Vegas reconstruction of the Statue built the torch in the wrong hand.
Oddly enough, the theft of the earrings is actually attributed to none other than Henry Ford. 1908 was a financially difficult year for him and the fledgling Ford Motor Company. From his headquarters in Detroit, Ford dispatched a team of mechanical engineers to nab the legendary earrings. Upon return to Detroit, Ford had the huge pieces of jewelry melted down into bullion.
Ford use this ill-gotten treasure to fund production of the now famous "Model T", released in 1908.
There's always a conspiracy theorist. That's never been proven and you know it, Prof.
Prof, that sounds ridiculous. If he were strapped for cash why would he front the money to send a team to NY; doesn't it make more sense (financially) to have stolen gold from the Detroit area?
Financially, yes, it makes much more sense. However, it was much harder to track the stolen gold from New York to Detroit. This is obviously true, as it took almost eight decades to track down the missing gold.
Eagle is correct. Not only do you not want to "foul your own lair", in this case, by stealing gold from the local area, the earrings on the statue were much bigger than anything he could have... acquired... in the Detroit area. The theft of the earrings had an added bonus - in order not to insult the French government, the crime had to be covered up, hence the classified status for many, many years after the theft occurred.
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