This kiss. This kiss. Big smooch in Sarasota

By admin at 20 June, 2009, 8:00 am

A kiss is just a kiss. But not for some folks in Sarasota. Take the 26-foot tall “Unconditional Surrender” sculpture on Sarasota’s Bayfront The traffic-stopping sculpture was first brought to town for Sarasota’s Season of Sculpture three years ago. After sculptor Seward Johnson removed it at the end of the exhibit, a group of residents raised money to bring it back temporarily, reports the Sarasota Herald Tribune . The sculpture recreates a famous photograph of a World War II sailor kissing a nurse during the end-of-war celebration in Times Square. It was an instant crowd pleaser, drawing flocks of people who took snapshots posing next to it, replaying the famous smooch Now an 88-year-old Sarasota World War II veteran is pledging to pay the $500,000 cost to purchase a permanent replica of the aluminum sculpture. But with

one condition: that the new statue stay in its current location on the Bayfront. Rich Swier, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and president of the Sarasota County Veterans Commission says the donor, who wanted to remain anonymous, views the sculpture as a monument to a generation that overcame hardships and war. “It captured a moment in time that in his lifetime is the most joyous moment ever,” Sweir said. Everybody sing now…. It’s that pivotal moment. It’s unthinkable. This kiss, this kiss (Unsinkable). This kiss, this kiss. Photo: Mary Foushi and Phil Werdell of Sarasota mimick the famous pose during a visit to “Unconditional Surrender” in Sarasota in 2005. HERALD-TRIBUNE ARCHIVE / 2005 / DAN WAGNER More FloriDUH

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This kiss. This kiss. Big smooch in Sarasota

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