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Version of Michelangelo's 'Moses' on Display in Little Italy

By Serena Solomon | December 9, 2011 1:45pm | Updated on December 12, 2011 11:19am
Chuck Huller is hoping a generous buying will allow it to stay at the Most Precious Blood Church in Little Italy.
Chuck Huller is hoping a generous buying will allow it to stay at the Most Precious Blood Church in Little Italy.
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DNAinfo/Serena Solomon

LITTLE ITALY —  A Moses of biblical proportions has arrived in New York.

A copy of “The Moses,” the famed Rome-based sculpture by Renaissance artist Michelangelo, crossed the sea from Italy to Manhattan last week to be displayed at the Most Precious Blood Church on Mulberry Street.

The man who helped bring the 10-foot-tall piece across the Atlantic is hopeful a generous donor will buy the sculpture to enable it to permanently remain in Manhattan.

“I hope that during the four months it is here I am able to sell it to someone and they donate it back to the church,” said Chuck Huller, an art dealer with the company SPQR Fine Art, which partnered with statue owner and producer of world-renowned replicas, the Chiurazzi Foundry.

The bronze replica can be viewed at the Most Precious Blood Church until April 1.
The bronze replica can be viewed at the Most Precious Blood Church until April 1.
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SPQR Fine Art

The piece is technically not considered a replica under international art law, but a "bronze original" because it is the first casting made of the 16th century statue, Huller explained.

“The Moses” clone has been appraised at $8.5 million, but its current owner is prepared to part with it for less then $4 million, Huller claimed.

“It is a mold from the original and this is the very first casting,” said Huller, a 66-year-old Hell's Kitchen resident, who worships at the nearby St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street.  

“It has tremendous historical significance.”

Michelangelo's masterpiece captures Moses in a moment of limbo between bliss and anger. The biblical figure has just descended Mount Sinai grasping the stone etchings of the Ten Commandments, when he finds the Israelites worshipping a golden calf, not the God who rescued them from Egypt.

The statue depicts Moses just before he smashes the tablets on the ground in a fit of rage. 

“It has implied movement,” Huller said of the statue's pose. “One motion is stopping and another is about to begin.”

He pointed to the right foot of “The Moses” which is positioned on its ball as though he is about to jump up from a seated position.

"This is very difficult to achieve in a statue," he noted.

For Huller, a devout Catholic, the five-and-a-half hours he took to clean the statue after it arrived was a spiritual process, he said. He has been reaching out not only to Catholics and other churches around the tri-state area, but also synagogues.

“I really feel it is time for Christians and Jews to come together, and this is the perfect tool,” he said.

Not only is Huller hoping to find a buyer, he is also encouraging visitors to come view the bronze original of “The Moses” while they have the chance. 

The public is welcome visit the piece at the Most Precious Blood Church, 109 Mulberry St., until April 1 from 10 a.m. until about 8 p.m.

“I just hope that this sculpture and the story around it brings people into a higher being,” Huller added.