{"id":111636,"date":"2026-02-12T01:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111636\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T01:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:38:09","slug":"joe-frazier-statue-gets-approval-to-move-to-the-philadelphia-art-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/111636\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Frazier statue gets approval to move to the Philadelphia Art Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philadelphia Art Commission approved the proposal to move the statue of former heavyweight champion, \u201cSmokin\u2019\u201d Joe Frazier<\/a> from its current location in front of Stateside Live! to the base of the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frazier\u2019s sculpture will replace the Rocky statue that has been in that space since 2006. Rocky will move<\/a> into the Art Museum for an exhibition and then to a permanent spot at the top of the front steps later this year \u2014 close to the spot where it was first unveiled at the end of \u201cRocky III.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we celebrate our 250th, visitors will come here seeking authentic stories about Philadelphia,\u201d Marguerite Anglin, the public art director for the city\u2019s arts office said during Wednesday\u2019s meeting. \u201cPlacing the Joe Frazier statue at the Art Museum allows us to share a more complete story about Philadelphia\u2019s spirit, one rooted in real people, real work, and real pride in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five commissioners present voted unanimously in favor of the proposal<\/a> after hearing statements and questions from Creative Philadelphia, the sculpture\u2019s creator, Stephen Layne, members of Frazier\u2019s family and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposal had the support of Mayor Cherelle Parker, the Art Museum, Layne, and Frazier\u2019s family and foundation, among others. The total budget allocated for the move is $150,000, using city funds.<\/p>\n

\"\"A nine-foot, bronzed likeness of late heavyweight champion Joe Frazier is unveilled outside Xfinity Live! on Sept. 13, 2015. (Bastiaan Slabbers for WHYY, file)<\/p>\n

Two of Frazier\u2019s granddaughters raised concerns during a public comments session. Gabrielle Gibson asked why the statue of Philadelphia\u2019s real boxing icon \u2014 a former world champion, Olympic gold medalist and three-time Golden Glove winner \u2014 would be situated near the bottom of the steps, while the figure of a fictional boxer would have the better view of the Center City skyline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe history of the steps is well established to those that know about it, and they aren\u2019t the Rocky steps,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are the \u2018Smokin\u2019\u2019 Joe Frazier steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

As detailed in an episode<\/a> of WHYY\u2019s \u201cThe Statue\u201d podcast<\/a>, Rocky\u2019s now-iconic run up the museum steps and his workout session punching frozen meat in a slaughterhouse were inspired by Frazier\u2019s training regimen. Stallone even gave Frazier a cameo role in the first \u201cRocky\u201d movie and considered him for the role of James \u201cClubber\u201d Lang in the third installment of the franchise \u2014 until he felt one of Frazier\u2019s punches while sparring during the audition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another of Frazier\u2019s grandchildren asked if the statue could be left in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, and a new statue be made for the Art Museum location.<\/p>\n

Addressing those concerns, Anglin said the move would put the two statues in dialogue, allowing viewers to see the significance that the real boxer had towards the creation of the fictional one.<\/p>\n

Anglin said Philadelphia is big enough \u201cto celebrate both the real life story of Joe Frazier and the myth of Rocky, and we\u2019re proud enough to do that. In other words, this is not a competition. It\u2019s a conversation, and public art can help us have those conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anglin added that tourists coming to the Art Museum would likely encounter the Frazier statue before they see Rocky. And the larger footprint of the Frazier statue would be less safe at the top of the steps, she said.<\/p>\n

The commission did amend the proposal before voting for it, adding that \u201creader rails\u201d will surround the Frazier statue to display validated historic information about the boxer. They also asked that the Rocky store at the foot of the museum steps post directions to the Frazier statue. Creative Philadelphia Chief Cultural Officer Valerie V. Gay said that discussions were already underway to that end, and to integrate community outreach and work with the curator of the upcoming \u201cRising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments\u201d<\/a> exhibition, running from April 25 to Aug. 2.<\/p>\n

There are currently three Rocky statues in the city, all cast by A. Thomas Schomberg. Apart from the one that will move up the steps, there\u2019s a second one that\u2019s already there. Stallone himself loaned it to the city in 2024 as part of the first-ever RockyFest<\/a>, and it will be returned to him. The third one was unveiled at Philadelphia International Airport last November and will remain a permanent fixture in Terminal A-West, between Gates 15 and 16.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Rocky Statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Nick Kariuki\/Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Frazier was born in Beaufort, S.C., and moved to Philly when he was 15. His boxing career included three Golden Gloves heavyweight championships, an Olympic gold medal and a victory over Muhammad Ali in 1971\u2019s \u201cFight of the Century\u201d at Madison Square Garden. The statue portrays Frazier\u2019s knockout punch in that bout. He lost to Ali in 1974 and, a year later, in the \u201cThrilla in Manila.\u201d Frazier died in Philadelphia in 2011.<\/p>\n

Critics have called out civic recognition of Frazier\u2019s legacy for being sparse compared with celebrations of the fictional character Rocky, whose statue draws an estimated 4 million tourists to the museum every year. Commission member Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta<\/a> and others said they saw the relocation as a step toward rectifying that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this sort of reunion is an opportunity for us all to go on a journey of healing and of pride in moments where our public art hasn\u2019t reflected the broader hidden histories of our city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philadelphia Art Commission approved the proposal to move the statue of former heavyweight champion, \u201cSmokin\u2019\u201d Joe Frazier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[23726,4877,564,94,52619,32383,69,16707,71,12634,70,2397,17586,30060,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-111636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-sylvester-stallone","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-joe-frazier","13":"tag-monument-lab","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-art-museum","16":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","17":"tag-philadelphia-museum-of-art","18":"tag-philadelphia-news","19":"tag-rocky","20":"tag-rocky-statue","21":"tag-rocky-steps","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}