In 1492, Columbus crossed the ocean blue — and 520 years later, wound up in a makeshift penthouse high above a corner of Central Park.
Starting today, New Yorkers and tourists can meet the statue of Columbus that towers over Columbus Circle in a new art installation that Mayor Bloomberg guaranteed “will knock your socks off.”
“None of us alive today have ever seen [the statue] face to face — that is, until now,” the mayor said at the opening preview yesterday.
With $1.5 million raised by the Public Art Fund, Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi placed the historic monument inside an 810-square-foot modern living room built on scaffolding more than 70 feet above the street.
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Bloomingdale’s handled the decorations, which include a sectional sofa, armchairs, lamps and wallpaper with likenesses of Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.
When the exhibit ends in two months, the city will spend another $1 million to repair the aging statue, whose marble is so pock-marked, it looks like limestone.
“Do the pigeons get up that high?” Bloomberg quipped about a possible source of the damage.
And Hizzoner sounded as if he wished critics of the new installation had gotten lost at sea.
“People object to everything!” the mayor snapped after representatives of the Italic Institute of America — which calls itself the “guardian of the Italian heritage” — protested the exhibit as “more carnival sideshow than art” and an insult to the explorer.
Bloomberg was also a big supporter of artist Christo’s “The Gates,” which graced Central Park with 7,503 vinyl “gates” along 23 miles of pathways in February 2005.
And he cheered the manmade “New York City Waterfalls” under the Brooklyn Bridge in the summer of 2008 – even though they allegedly caused millions in damage to the famed River Cafe in Brooklyn.
Reservations are required for the exhibit, which runs through Nov. 18 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m daily.
Free tickets are available at the information desk at the Shops at Columbus Circle or at the Web site http://www.publicartfund.org.