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July 3, 2006 -- All across the United States, communities,
families and friends will celebrate America's independence
on the Fourth of July. More than 3,000 miles away in Paris,
there will be another celebration: the unveiling and dedication
of a statue of one of America's Founding Fathers and author
of the Declaration of Independence-Thomas Jefferson.
The event is the culmination of an almost 10-year effort
by University of Virginia alumni in Paris, the Thomas Jefferson
Foundation and Guy Wildenstein, an art collector and dealer
based in New York and Paris. The statue is a gift to the
city of Paris from the Florence Gould Foundation, which
supports French/American exchange and friendship, and Alec
and Guy Wildenstein in memory of their father Daniel Wildenstein,
on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of Jefferson's
death.
The project arose from a conversation Guy Wildenstein had
with his father on the eve of Thanksgiving in 2000.
"I remember telling my father I had learned that not
a single street, avenue, or square commemorated Jefferson's
presence
in Paris during the Revolutionary years," Guy Wildenstein
said. "My father, a great specialist of this period
of French history, reminded me also that Jefferson was
very likely the inspiration of the Declaration of the Rights
of Man adopted by the Assemblée Nationale on August
26, 1789.
"French by blood, American by birth, I have devoted
a part of my life to strengthening the bonds between two
allied
nations who, from Yorktown to this day, have always fought
side by side for Liberty."
The statue, which will be installed permanently by the
Pont Solferino, in the Seventh Arrondissement and across
the Seine from the Jardin des Tuileries, will stand just
50 feet from the Palais de Salm, which served as Jefferson's
model for Monticello, his home outside Charlottesville,
Va.
The statue is a monument to Jefferson's contributions to
U.S.-French friendship and to his efforts to gain recognition
of the fledgling democracy in Europe.
"Jefferson lived in this neighborhood, observed from
the bank of the Seine the construction of the Palace of
the
Legion of Honor and other major buildings that were in
progress in the 1780s," said University of Virginia
President John T. Casteen III, who will attend the celebration
with U.Va. officials, alumni and friends. "Much of
what he learned there survives in Virginia. The final design
of Monticello and the conception of U.Va.'s Lawn are thought
both to have occurred to Jefferson as he studied the evolution
of the city of Paris from this region along the Seine."
Jefferson founded and designed the University in 1819.
He envisioned the "academical village" as a place
where daily life and learning would be an integral part
of the student experience. The historic Grounds, with the
distinctive Rotunda and pavilions linked by student rooms,
have been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The statue, created by renowned French sculptor Jean Cardot,
stands approximately 10 feet high and rests on a four-foot
high base. Cardot's life-like public statues of General
Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill grace other Paris
locations.
The July 4 event is at 11:30 a.m. and will be hosted by
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë. U.S. Ambassador Craig
Robert Stapleton will speak.
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