u/Faretraders

This is not a reproduction of the Statue of Liberty itself. It is an actual mold taken in the 1980s from the original terra-cotta maquette (small-scale model) created by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi before the full-size Statue of Liberty was built.
From what I’ve been told, the original terra-cotta model was owned by the Statue of Liberty organization, and this mold was made for research/documentation purposes by my dad when he was building a 2/3rd scale statue of the hand and touch that is still standing in the Skirball museum in Los Angeles. It was not for commercial production. It was never intended to be sold as a souvenir or mass-produced.
The mold captures the details of the original artist’s model and has a direct connection to the original sculpture rather than the finished monument.

I also have a statue that was cast in it.

The plaster casing has degraded and was removed. I saved this mold itself from the garbage.

It’s not in the best shape but other than a few small cracks and treatable mold it’s not that bad.

Any ideas who would be interested in this piece of history or what it could be worth?

Thanks for any insight

I’m an Airbnb host with over 100 five-star reviews and several years on the platform. The guests had 39 five-star reviews themselves and were long-standing Airbnb users.

A few days before arrival they booked my property. About two hours before check-in, Airbnb canceled the reservation without notifying me. The only reason I found out was because the guests messaged asking what happened. (I did get an email I didn’t see at 1:02, check-in is 3.:00)

The guests were traveling across the country that day and were already in route. I immediately contacted Airbnb and spent hours on the phone with support. The guests were doing the same on their end. They were told there was an issue requiring ID reverification, completed the verification process, and were instructed by Airbnb to rebook the reservation.

They rebooked. I accepted the reservation again.

Airbnb then canceled the second reservation as well.

The guests told me they had been transferred through multiple departments and completed everything Airbnb requested. I also spent hours working with support, escalated the issue to a supervisor and had a screen sharing session but never received a clear explanation of what the actual issue was. Nobody seemed able to resolve it or explain why it had happened.

Oddly enough I was able to speak with guests again after the final cancelation from Airbnb and have found them to be having the same issues. We were both running through an endless chain of hoops and getting no resolve.

The guests wanted to stay. I wanted to host them. Both sides followed Airbnb’s instructions and spent hours trying to make the reservation happen. Despite that, Airbnb canceled two reservations and could not provide a meaningful explanation to either party.

The strangest part is that after Airbnb canceled both reservations, I later received a request asking me to review the guests as if the stay had occurred.

Luckily the guests did arrive at the property because they had the address from booking and we figured everything out for ourselves. They are just as frustrated and confused as I am and are lovely humans as their previous Airbnb reviews describe.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have any idea what might have happened?

Mold taken in 80s from original terra-cotta maquette of the Statue of Liberty created by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi

Airbnb canceled reservation 2 hours before check-in, had guest rebook, then canceled again