Why is the Statue of Liberty green?

The iconic Statue of Liberty, located in New York, was not always green. In 1885, it was seen in a shiny copper colour when gifted to the United States from France. To be precise, when this legendary statue was assembled, it reflected the dull brown colour. The statue was established in 1886.

It was observed and analyzed that the change in its colour is only because of the chemical reactions present in the atmosphere, including oxygen and air pollution, that has led its colour to change to Green.

The statue is made from copper, and it is evident that copper changes its colour from brown to Green gradually because of the oxidation. Oxidation happens when the air and water react with the copper plates. Subsequently, the oxidation creates a thin layer of copper carbonate over its surface, known as patina.

Hence, the Statue of Liberty started turning Green and entirely changed its colour by 1920.

When the statue started turning Green, some officials of the United States thought of getting it painted. Even the newspapers published the news that the statue is about to get painted in 1906, which led to public outcry.

Subsequently, an intelligent Times reporter interviewed a bronze and copper manufacturer whether the statue should be repainted? It was then concluded that the repaint is unnecessary as the patina protects the metal, and doing such a thing might vandalize this iconic statue. Hence, the idea of keeping it the same is suggested to date.

One of the most renowned statues in the world is 151 feet tall. It is made up of 62,000 pounds of copper and 2,50,000 pounds of steel. Moreover, the concrete pedestal weighs 54 million pounds.

You might be glad to know that this magnificent statue is modelled on a real person; Frederic Bartholdi used his mother Charlotte as the model for one of the world’s iconic, recognized statues. Furthermore, the crown’s seven points represent the seven seas and the seven continents across the globe.