Auguste Bartholdi. Liberty Enlightening the World is on view at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France, from 15 September 2026 to 31 January 2027. Presented for the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, the exhibition focuses on the French sculptor behind the Statue of Liberty and the extraordinary process that turned his idea into a global symbol.

The statue was originally conceived as a gift from France to the United States to mark the centenary of American independence in 1876, but the project required another decade of fundraising, design and construction before it was inaugurated in New York in 1886. The exhibition looks beyond the monument’s familiarity to recover the artistic ambition, political symbolism and persistence involved in its creation.

A parallel immersive experience, A Statue for Liberty, Bartholdi’s Dream, from Paris to New York, reconstructs the project in virtual reality and follows the artistic and technical development of the monument.

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904) was an Alsatian-born French sculptor specialising in monumental public works. Although his career included numerous sculptures and memorials, his reputation became inseparable from the Statue of Liberty, which ultimately overshadowed much of his wider practice.

★★★★½ — Worth the trip.

A strong exhibition for seeing past the icon. The real interest is discovering how a 19th-century sculptural project became one of the most powerful public images in the world — and how much of Bartholdi disappeared behind it.