Rocky statue returned to Philadelphia Museum

PHILADELPHIA - Rocky Balboa -- or more specifically, a statue of the Hollywood palooka, boxing gloves raised in triumph -- is being restored to a spot outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the winner by a split decision in a bout between fine art and pop culture.\nDespite complaints that the statue is a piece of kitsch undeserving of display near Renoirs and Monets, the city Art Commission voted 6-2 Wednesday to move the 2,000-pound bronze out of storage and put it on a street-level pedestal near the museum steps.\nThe steps were the setting for one of the most famous scenes in Sylvester Stallone's 1976 movie "Rocky" and have been a big tourist attraction ever since, with visitors to Philadelphia imitating the Italian Stallion's sweat-suited dash to the top. (Of course, after bounding up the 72 steps and pumping their fists in the air like Rocky, the tourists often turn around and leave without setting foot in the museum.)\nThe 8-foot-6 Rocky is expected to be on his granite pedestal in time for a dedication ceremony Friday.\n"We're thrilled," said city Commerce Director Stephanie Naidoff. "What more wonderful a symbol of hard work and dedication is there than Rocky?"\nThe two commission members who voted against the move, artist Moe Brooker and University of the Arts president Miguel Angel Corzo, said the site was inappropriate.\n"It's not a work of art and ... it doesn't belong there," said Brooker, a professor at Moore College of Art and Design. Rocky's battle to the top "is a concept, it is an idea, and ideas don't need justification in terms of objects."\nCorzo suggested that he might resign from the commission over the vote, saying that placing the pugilist near the museum goes against the commission's desire to "raise the standards of the city."\nHe said the issue for him was not whether the statue was art, pointing out the debatable aesthetic value of some of the Philadelphia museum's works -- for example, a porcelain urinal by avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp. He questioned whether Rocky deserved to be neighbors with sculptures such as Rodin's "The Thinker," which sits nearby on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.