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The 'Moai' of
Easter Island
Moai sculpture. 
Moai Standing Sentinel.
Statues in the Island Quarry.
Head arrives. Erected by Sam Green and Col. Gray.
Statue being mounted on Seagram's Building Plaza. |
The mysterious and isolated island in the Pacific Ocean called Rapa Nui or, Easter Island, has long intrigued humanity because of the many giant stone statues called Moai that stand like sentinels all over the island. In 1968, Lan Chile Airlines and Air France were planning to construct a jet refueling station on Easter Island for transoceanic flights. To make way for the new station, hundreds of the stone 'Moai' and their site specific altars would have had to have been destroyed. Had this occurred, one of our world's finest examples of ancient indigenous sculpture would have been lost forever. GOAL The Organization's goal was to avert this cultural disaster. SUCCESS The tragedy was successfully avoided when Sam Green, then Cultural Consultant to the City of New York, was asked by retired U.S. Army Colonel James Gray to bring the public's attention to this potential archaeological and anthropological disaster. Green took a position as Special Projects Director with Gray's organization [The International Fund for Monuments] and, working with the [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)] traveled to Easter Island. The plan was to bring back one of the Moai and display it, in as prominent a location as possible in New York City. After locating an eight foot tall head that had been torn off its torso by a tidal wave in 1960, Green diverted a cargo plane from Vietnam to transport the stone head to Park Avenue's Seagram's Plaza, where it was placed on a pedestal designed by Philip Johnson that raised it to its original height. The 59th Street Bridge and two lanes of Park Avenue were closed while trucking the five-ton head to its temporary location. This display generated the anticipated publicity, enough, at least, to stop the bulldozers: funds were then raised to expand the University of Wyoming archaeological study of the island. Under UNESCO rules, all commercial development was halted. Presently, because the Island is so well known, several other International Organizations now closely monitor activities there.
Read the New York Times
account from October 22, 1968, "5-Ton Head From Easter Island is put on a Pedestal."
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