Brand new natural dying Hand carved foo dog statues with shield gate decoration

Missouri Southern State University will add a larger-than-life lion statue to its campus, thanks to two significant gifts made to the Missouri Southern Foundation.   The statue will be in front of the Leon C. Billingsly Student Center on the west side of the campus oval. The project is a step forward in the university’s Master Facilities Plan, which calls for new buildings, campus renovations and gateway signage over the next 25 years.   The bronze statue was made possible by a gift from Bill and Tracy Gipson as well as the MSSU Student Senate.   It will stand 10 feet in height and will be nearly 12 feet in length. The structure will be surrounded by a new 5,400-square-foot plaza, which will feature a winding, graduated wall as well as ground pavers. The area will be accentuated with new seating and lighting, and will be in a location designed to attract students and visitors. Called “New York’s most lovable public sculpture” by architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the Lions have witnessed countless parades and been adorned with holly wreaths during the winter holidays and magnificent floral wreaths in springtime. They have been bedecked in top hats, graduation caps, Mets and Yankee caps, and more. They have been photographed alongside countless tourists, replicated as bookends, caricatured in cartoons, and illustrated in numerous children’s books. One even served as the hiding place for the cowardly lion in the motion picture The Wiz.   According to Henry Hope Reed in his book, The New York Public Library, about the architecture of  the Fifth Avenue building, the sculptor Edward Clark Potter obtained the commission for the lions on the recommendation of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America's foremost sculptors. Potter was paid $8,000 for the modeling, and the Piccirilli Brothers executed the carving for $5,000, using pink Tennessee marble. After enduring almost a century of weather and pollution, in 2004 the lions were professionally cleaned and restored.