LOVE: The Lovers’ Sculpture in New York

Until 2019, the LOVE sculpture stood at the heart of New York. Unfortunately, the sculpture was removed following a legal dispute.

The Story of the LOVE Sculpture in New York

LOVE stood at the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street, near Central Park, in Midtown Manhattan. The sculpture measured 4 meters (13 ft) tall and wide, created by American artist Robert Indiana. It was removed in 2019.
Until its removal, the sculpture drew crowds of visitors, especially couples. People would climb on it to take photos.
Originally, in 1964, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) asked the artist to create a pop-art image for its annual Christmas greeting card. Robert Indiana delivered a four-letter word on two lines with a tilted O aligned with the V, in a square format. The design proved so successful that in 1970, the Indianapolis Museum of Art commissioned the first sculpture. In 1973, the image appeared on a U.S. stamp that sold 300 million copies.
Through this work, Robert Indiana wanted to celebrate the love within each person. The tilted O symbolized that love is never perfect—a beautiful message of generosity and peace on the streets of a constantly moving city.

The LOVE sculpture was removed in 2019, a year after Robert Indiana’s death, and has not been reinstalled at its original location since. Officially, the removal was for renovation. After several months with no sign of its return, the real reason emerged. The sculpture became caught in a dispute over Robert Indiana’s artistic legacy.
In 2023, after part of the dispute over Indiana’s works was resolved, LOVE was temporarily displayed at Rockefeller Center.
It remains unclear whether the LOVE sculpture will ever be permanently reinstalled in New York. While you may not see LOVE back on New York’s streets, LOVE sculptures have appeared around the world: Montreal, Madrid, Lisbon, Singapore, Taipei, Shanghai, and Martigny, Switzerland. The design has been created in different colors and languages. But the New York sculpture held special significance, standing just steps from MoMA, the museum that inspired it.