{"id":752908,"date":"2026-04-25T20:35:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/752908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T20:35:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:35:23","slug":"iconic-rocky-statue-outside-philadelphia-museum-of-art-will-now-get-its-own-exhibit-and-be-moved-indoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/752908\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic ‘Rocky’ statue outside Philadelphia Museum of Art will now get its own exhibit — and be moved indoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the renaissance of the Italian Stallion.<\/p>\n

The iconic statue of fictional prizefighter Rocky Balboa which has long stood outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art is moving up in weight class from public work to fine art.<\/p>\n

After decades of tension between the museum and the worldwide tourist destination mirrored from the beloved classic 1979 film, curators have finally bent the knee to the bronze Balboa and allowed the 2-ton sculpture inside its doors to fill gaps in their summer programs, NBC News reported.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe iconic Rocky Balboa statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art will finally be featured in its own exhibit. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cRising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments,\u201d which opens this weekend, will include the fictional boxer\u2019s figure as part of its exhibit. <\/p>\n

The exhibit \u2014 examining how a fictional fighter and statue became a real-life symbol of Philadelphia\u2019s identity \u2014 traces \u201cmore than two millennia of artists\u2019 engagement with boxing and celebrity,\u201d according to the museum\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ranging from ancient sculptures to paintings from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol \u201cilluminate what visitors project onto the Rocky statue: ideals of the underdog \u2014 perseverance, spirit, and grit \u2014 values shaped by the history of the sport and by lived struggle and aspiration,\u201d the website reads. <\/p>\n

The statue based on Sylvester Stallone\u2019s titular \u201cRocky\u201d landed near the bottom of the museum\u2019s steps because of the film\u2019s iconic scene of the Italian Stallion jogging through the streets of Philly trailed by an ever-growing crowd of supporters culminating in a sprint up the museum steps.<\/p>\n

\"BannersThe PMA cast the feature of the bronze statue as a musing on fighting over two millennia and an examination of the underdog archetype embodied by Stallone\u2019s Balboa. AP<\/p>\n

It is visited by roughly 4 million people each year, according to the Philadelphia Visitor Center. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a Rocky statue on loan from Stallone\u2019s private collection has been temporarily placed at the top of the steps \u2014 replacing the city\u2019s own. <\/p>\n

In August, when the exhibit ends, the city statue will be brought back outside and placed at the top of the museum\u2019s steps in place of Stallone\u2019s personal one.<\/p>\n

At the bottom of steps where the Rocky statue long called home, a new statue is being built to honor legendary Philadelphia boxer \u201cSmokin\u201d Joe Frazier, whose real-life story at least partially inspired Rocky.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Joe Frazier, Rocky doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d said Louis Marchesano, the museum\u2019s deputy director of curatorial affairs and conservation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the renaissance of the Italian Stallion. The iconic statue of fictional prizefighter Rocky Balboa which has long…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":752909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1037,8160,1448,2830,1311,29181,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":["post-752908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-art","tag-museums","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-rocky","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116467265258429530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}