Petal the elephant moved from Burlington Center Mall, headed to new home
BURLINGTON, N.J. (WPVI) -- The only remaining tenant in the now-defunct Burlington Center Mall is getting a brand new home.
The big, bronze elephant named Petal has been a fixture at the mall since 1982.
The plan is to demolish the shopping center, but the sculptor has been on a mission to get Petal, and the cheerful boy atop her, adopted and moved out before that happens.
On Friday, Petal and her friend began their journey to a brand new home.
The new owner, Arts Guild New Jersey, is the lucky non-profit to be granted the work of art.
They worked with the Burlington Rotary Club to raise the funds to move the statue, which will stay in Burlington.
It will have a new home on the Burlington Riverwalk in the spring.
This was Philadelphia sculptor Zenos Frudakis' very first piece, and Friday's move was filled with emotion.
"I am very happy that it's going to a better place where children can still experience it and people who grew up with it can be with it again," said Derrick Owings of Arts Guild New Jersey.
Before the statue finds a permanent home at Riverwalk, it will undergo a restoration at a bronze foundry in Chester, Pennsylvania.
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