Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock
A DISSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA — The Liberty Bell is moving to America’s heartland, specifically Bentonville, Ark., the National Park Service has announced.
The bell, one of the nation’s most prominent treasures, will be a permanent exhibit in the sculpture garden of the planned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Park Ranger Donald Oversight explained the federal government is taking out several birds with one stone.
“More people will be able to see ‘Ol Ding-dong’, what with the horrid midtown traffic here,” Oversight said, using the government’s fond nickname for the relic. “We’re worried about terrorists, too. By being in the Ozarks, you have both greater access to Americans for the Liberty Bell and limited means for extremists.”
Also, the moderate weather of Northwest Arkansas should keep the bell’s famous crack, which occurred in 1846, from growing.
The Liberty Bell’s relocation plan came after the museum, a project of Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, lost its bid for Thomas Eakins’ classic painting The Gross Clinic.
Thomas Jefferson University of Philadelphia had announced in November that it was selling the canvas to a partnership of Walton and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, unless its $68 million selling price could be matched. The school is raising funds to expand its facilities. Local individuals and groups announced a financial package on Dec. 21. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art now will own and exhibit the picture.
The 1875 oil shows Dr. Samuel Gross performing surgery before Jefferson medical students.
Walton has been buying classic works of American art for years for the museum, which is expected to open in 2009 in Bentonville, headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The Liberty Bell should be in place, however, by April 1, 2007, as it is to be displayed separately from the building, in an old-fashioned Southern gazebo in the sculpture garden. The pavilion will be a prefabricated model sold at Sam’s Clubs that can be constructed in minutes, or your money back.
“I know the Liberty Bell came from England. It’ll be the sole exception in our U.S. collection,” said the daughter of Wal-Mart’s late founder Sam Walton.
The symbol of democracy, “Let Freedom Ring,” will not only enjoy the mid-American protection of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, but also the celebrated Arkansas State Police, Benton County sheriff’s office and Bentonville Police Department.
If that isn’t enough, the Minuteman Project has offered those of its volunteers who are back from rotation duty guarding the nation’s border with Mexico, armed with lawn chairs, binoculars and ice chests.
“The Liberty Bell will be safe in my home town,” Walton said, praising “the strapping masculinity” of Minuteman Project members.
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Post updated 16 January 2014 only to add photo.