Wall Street's most iconic symbol may leave its home after nearly 3 decades

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

• Fearless Girl, a defiant statue placed by State Street to promote its gender diversity ETF, is moving from its place next to the iconic Charging Bull to in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
• The bull may also be moving, the New York Daily News reported, as the city seeks to upgrade pedestrian safety.

Charging Bull, the most iconic symbol of Wall Street, might soon leave its home on the lower apron of Broadway, the New York Daily News reported Thursday.

The news comes amid a year-long spat between the bull's sculptor, Arturo Di Modica, and State Street Global Advisors, which placed its "Fearless Girl" directly in front of the iconic bull to advertise its gender diversity exchange-traded fund.

State Street will announce Thursday that Fearless Girl, which stands facing the bull with her hands defiantly on her hips, will move a block east to stand in front of the New York Stock Exchange, according to the Daily News.

Charging Bull, which was installed in 1989, may also move, the paper reports, as the city seeks to remove the hoards of pedestrians from the median of lower Broadway near Manhattan's Bowling Green park. Crowds of onlookers often spill into the street due to the narrow design of the park.

In March of 2016, shortly after Fearless Girl was installed, Di Monica decried it as a work of "corporate feminism," calling it an insult to his work. "She's there attacking the bull," he said.

Di Monica and his lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union demanded the girl be moved, despite support for the statue from Mayor Bill De Blasio and countless celebrities including Chelsea Clinton and Jessica Chasten.

"Our goal is to promote the power of having women in leadership, and placing her right next to the New York Stock Exchange is really the perfect metaphor," Cyrus Taraporevala, president and CEO of State Street Global Advisors, told the Daily News.

"If it even gets some people thinking about stuff, and they decide they don't like it, we're still getting people to think about the issue."