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The Sherman Monument at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South should have been easy to spot. I’ve seen it before, although I couldn’t recall exactly where it was or what it looked like. When I arrived at the area, I didn’t see anything resembling the gold statue I was expecting. I asked several of the artists lined up at the entrance to the park if they could help me locate the Sherman Monument. I felt like I was on a scavenger hunt or a contestant on The Amazing Race. Two of them could barely understand what I was asking, and they didn’t seem to know where such a statue could be. But the third, a kind middle-aged Asian man, pointed toward the white cube in the adjacent plaza. “It’s underneath,” he explained. Ah! So the statue is currently off limits while it is being repaired and regilded. We won’t be able to “find” the shelf now (note that the mark is the horizontal surface of the step and not any kind of bolt or brass marker). But I’m certain it will still be in place when the restored monument is unveiled.

Funny story: the last time the statue was regilded, in 1989, it was finished so brightly that it appalled some wealthy Fifth Avenue residents. “It has completely spoiled my view of the park,” complained one of them. Source: Restored Plaza Hailed (but Turn Down That General!)