São Paulo stock exchange removes ‘Charging Bull’ copy after fine

B3, the company which operates the São Paulo stock exchange, removed its much-lampooned version of Wall Street’s ‘Charging Bull’ statue on Tuesday evening — just one week after it was unveiled. City officials deemed the statue to be advertising and fined B3 for not having a license to display it in a public space.

The idea for the statue came from celebrity investor Pablo Spyer, who uses a golden version of the Wall Street bull as a mascot for his online broadcasts. Indeed, it was this connection that made authorities consider the five-meter-long object a piece of advertising.

Less than a week in place, the statue was a bad omen for markets, with the Ibovespa benchmark stock index reaching new lows on multiple occasions since. Moreover, it was vandalized by protesters who considered it an insult to millions of Brazilians who fell below the poverty line as a result of the pandemic-led crisis.

Multiple stock exchanges around the world have bull statues in front of their buildings, representing aggressive investor optimism and financial prosperity. The “Charging Bull” statue in New York City’s financial district — the inspiration for the Brazilian version — was created by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash.

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