gifts your city has received from other cities or countries

[SpongeG]

i was watching a show the other day and apparently Canada has gifted New York City with a christmas tree somewhere and it is decadently decorated with fancy crystal and lights baubbles etc. by one of Canada's top interior designers - brian gluckstein... in some New York City Park.

which made me think has your city ever been gifted with anything? permanent or temporary?

I can think of new york - the statue of liberty from paris france

Burnaby - Vancouver (BC) got some Japanese totem poles from Japan

http://www.burnabynow.com/issues06/045106/photos/top4a.jpg

http://gate-net.ibelgique.com/coulisses/lieu_tournage/403b.jpg

[jeicow]

Ottawa, Ontario receives 100,000 tulip bulbs every year from the Dutch Royal family as a symbol of thanks for the Government of Canada's generosity while the family was in exile during WWII. More specifically, when Princess Juliana was going to give birth to her daughter Margriet, the Government of Canada passed a law making Princess Juliana's room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital extraterritorial so that the infant would have exclusively Dutch, not dual nationality. As a result, we have the Ottawa Tulip Festival every year. Not as cool as the Statue of Liberty but it's the Netherlands and Canada for frig sakes.

[Buckeye Native 001]

In Orange County, we get exurbanite Angelenos.

[Jeff_in_Dayton]

Yes, believe it or not, Dayton was given a replica of a Roman mile marker from its sister city of Augsburg, which used to be a Roman city and apparenlty still has some Roman relics. The replica marker is on the Courthouse square.

(actually the marker sounds small, but is actually a statue of sorts).

[LostInTheZone]

I'm pretty sure the fountain behind the Philadelphia Art Museum was a gift from fascist Italy.

[raggedy13]

Vancouver apparently got a mace from London. Here's what it says on the City of Vancouver's website...

The City of Vancouver Mace was presented by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the City of London, England, in 1936 as a gift on Vancouver's 50th birthday. Made from Canadian silver and mercurial gilded, it is 1.5 m ( 5'3") long and weighs 18 kg (40 lb). It is an exact replica of the City of London's mace, except for the stem (the London mace stem is wood). The mace is symbolic of City Council's authority and is displayed in the Council Chamber during regular Council meetings.

These are the only pictures I could find of it...

http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/images/citysymbols/citymace.gif

http://www.bcrevolution.ca/images/van_council1.jpg

Looks a lot bigger than I originally expected. I first thought it would be like a dinky wand type thing, but 1.5 m is rather large and in charge. I wonder how much you could sell that thing for on ebay? :P

[kool maudit]

http://www.emdx.org/rail/metro/Images/QC-STM-Victoria_20030922-112253_EntourageGuimard-VueGenerale.jpg

we got this metro entrance from paris.

[hydrobond]

I believe Cincinnati has a statue of Romulus and Remus from some city in Italy.

After checking Wikipedia, it seems it was sent over by Benito Mussolini.

[Stanz]

The Province of Nova Scotia has donated the annual Christmas tree to the Boston Common as an enduring thank-you for the relief efforts of the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee following the Halifax Explosion of 1917.

/wikipedia

[Steely Dan]

chicago recently received 106 headless and armless nine-foot-tall human statues from poland as a gift.

"The new public sculpture installation - Chicago's largest - is titled "Agora," after the Greek word for "marketplace." It's the work of Polish sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz, who has had a close relationship with Chicago ever since the city mounted the first American retrospective of her work in 1982.

The work, valued at $10 million, is a gift from the artist, Poland's Ministry of Culture and a private foundation in Poland. The $750,000 cost of its shipment from Poland, installation and upkeep has largely been underwritten through public subscription, authorities said."

here's a link to some very nice pictures of this large installation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/only-connect/tags/magdalenaabakanowicz/show/

[Attrill]

Mussolini was really fond of giving gifts. Chicago has a Roman column in Burnham park given by Mussolini to commemorate a flight of boat-planes from Italy to Chicago. Balbo Dr. was named after the commander of the flight. The inscription on the column reads:

"FASCIST ITALY BY COMMAND OF BENITO MUSSOLINI
PRESENTS TO CHICAGO
EXALTATION SYMBOL MEMORIAL
OF THE ATLANTIC SQUADRON LED BY BALBO
THAT WITH ROMAN DARING FLEW ACROSS THE OCEAN
IN THE ELEVENTH YEAR
OF THE FASCIST ERA"

http://www.ostia-antica.org/past/chic02.jpg

[Comrade]

Oooh, the fascist era. How classy! That Benito was a stud!

http://www.dictatorofthemonth.com/Mussolini/mussolini1.jpg

:hug: :kiss:

[SHiRO]

Ottawa, Ontario receives 100,000 tulip bulbs every year from the Dutch Royal family as a symbol of thanks for the Government of Canada's generosity while the family was in exile during WWII. More specifically, when Princess Juliana was going to give birth to her daughter Margriet, the Government of Canada passed a law making Princess Juliana's room at the Ottawa Civic Hospital extraterritorial so that the infant would have exclusively Dutch, not dual nationality. As a result, we have the Ottawa Tulip Festival every year. Not as cool as the Statue of Liberty but it's the Netherlands and Canada for frig sakes.
:tup:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Festival_%28Ottawa%29



---


Also, I didn't even know about this thing untill I visited Washington DC last summer.
It's next to the Iwo Jima memorial.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Carillon

[tayser]

Tianjin Garden in Chinatown - a gift to kick off the sister city relationship, and I have a feeling Argyle Square ('Piazza Italia') is in the same boat owing to the Milanese sister city relationship.

I know we gave St Petersburg a park bench (Hah!) or something for its 300th b-day bash a few years ago too.

[Shawn]

We've got so much Japanese stuff from Kyoto in Boston that I dont know where to begin, but I suppose the most obvious are the Japanese magnolias and cherry trees that line streets like Newbury and Commonwealth. The MFA, while not city-run by any stretch of the imagination, has the largest collection of Japanese art in the world outside of Japan, much of it being donated as gifts from Kyoto and also from Dr. William Clark's private collection (Clark, a Massachusetts senator, president of Umass, and founder of Hokkaido University, is quite famous in Japan for his departing phrase, '"Boys, be ambitious!"). There are many small Japanese tea-houses tucked here and there throughout the Back Bay, all of which are gifts from Kyoto or Hokkaido.

Also, God willing, Boston will be receiving the "gift" of one Matsuzaka Daisuke by Friday night.

[HomeInMyShoes]

The royal family, well Queen Elizabeth, bequethed a pair of replicas of Trafalgar Fountain to Canada. One is in Ottawa, ON in the park across the street from the Lord Elgin Hotel and one is in my hometown of Regina, SK.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h217/HomeInMyShoes/LookingBack/328a3d74.jpg

[keninhalifax]

^ Really? Wow! I pass by that fountain all the time and never gave it second thought.

[elsonic]

we've got this bell from Japan
http://static.flickr.com/26/45713534_ece4c0aaac.jpg?v=0

a lion from Lyon
http://static.flickr.com/31/37536623_cc93c46127.jpg?v=0

and this chunk of the Berlin Wall
http://static.flickr.com/25/37289764_942e876f7d.jpg?v=0

[the pope]

but here's the real question, has a country ever re-gifted something from another country?

[MolsonExport]

Montreal built a $2 million park somewhere in Shanghai.
Conceived by the former Botanist mayor of Montreal, Bourque.

[alon504]

Bahrain gave $100 Million to Katrina Relief, as did the King of Saudi Arabia....

[KB0679]

I heard Atlanta shipped some of its homeless population off to other cities before the '96 Olympics. Does that count?

[BTinSF]

Ottawa, Ontario receives 100,000 tulip bulbs every year from the Dutch Royal family as a symbol of thanks for the Government of Canada's generosity while the family was in exile during WWII.

San Francisco gets tons of stuff. Here's a few items:

This Dutch windmill (and the original tulip bulbs to go with it) was a gift of Queen Wilhelmina
http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/thepark/dutch_windmill_2.jpg

This statue of Juan Bautista de Anza, founder of the city, was a gift of the current Spanish King, Juan Carlos:
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2000/06/07/mn_statues-anza.jpg

This "Sister City Garden" contains plants from all of San Francisco's sister cities which include Shanghai, Haifa, Assisi, Thessaloniki, Abidjan, Manila, Osaka, Cork, Taipei, Caracas, Sydney, Seoul and Estele (Nicaragua)
http://www.yerbabuenagardens.com/img/gar-16-sister-city-garden.jpg

[spyguy]

http://www.emdx.org/rail/metro/Images/QC-STM-Victoria_20030922-112253_EntourageGuimard-VueGenerale.jpg

we got this metro entrance from paris.

The one in Chicago
http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3181/42159351dd0a99cffeyl9.jpg

From Hamburg in 1979
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5063/kempf3ed5.jpg

[svs]

Korea sent us this bell of peace which is located in San Pedro near the Los Angeles harbor.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/21/Koreanfriendshipbell.JPG

[someone123]

From Venice, to commemorate the voyage of John Cabot (the case sucks):
http://www.pbase.com/halifaxphoto/image/67334722/medium.jpg

The Dingle, a tower on the Northwest Arm in Halifax, was built about 100 years ago on the 150th anniversary of representative government in the city (probably a first within present-day Canada) and is full of plaques from many different cities and countries. Here's a wooden panel donated by the City of Bristol:

http://www.pbase.com/halifaxphoto/image/50156238/medium.jpg

[SpongeG]

cool stuff

[Zerton]

I hope America gives to be fair.

[Urban Zombie]

^We're giving plenty of "gifts" to Iraq--just not in the conventional way.

[TimCity2000]

Huntsville, Alabama's Big Spring International Park contains a number of gifts from different countries, including a bell from Norway and a bench from England. The most recognizable gifts, however, are those from Japan: the "Red Bridge" and the cherry blossoms. The bridge can be seen in this pic:

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h199/timcity2000/200hsv13.jpg

[1ajs]

the golden boy was given to the province of manitoba witch winnipeg is the capital of..
it spent ww1 as ballist going back and forth from north amarica and europe...

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/7833/44jq6.jpg

[roner]

I like the idea of giving a useful gift like a bridge. Well done Japan.

[Benhamin]

We've got so much Japanese stuff from Kyoto in Boston that I dont know where to begin, but I suppose the most obvious are the Japanese magnolias and cherry trees that line streets like Newbury and Commonwealth. The MFA, while not city-run by any stretch of the imagination, has the largest collection of Japanese art in the world outside of Japan, much of it being donated as gifts from Kyoto and also from Dr. William Clark's private collection (Clark, a Massachusetts senator, president of Umass, and founder of Hokkaido University, is quite famous in Japan for his departing phrase, '"Boys, be ambitious!"). There are many small Japanese tea-houses tucked here and there throughout the Back Bay, all of which are gifts from Kyoto or Hokkaido.

Also, God willing, Boston will be receiving the "gift" of one Matsuzaka Daisuke by Friday night.

Wasn't a gate given by Taiwan (I believe) that marks an entrance to chinatown as well?

[Lecom]

http://www.blogwaybaby.com/uploaded_images/Statue%20of%20Liberty-728428.jpg

Originally designed as a gift to Egypt, but the latter hated it so the project was dumped upon America.

[rapid_business]

There are a couple plam trees in the Alberta Legislative Building in Edmonton donated from California in 1905 (not positive on the date). http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/d/de/250px-Edmonton_leg.jpg

[LouisianaRush]

For New Orleans:

The Red Room was originally an observation deck for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It as shipped to New Orleans in the 80's and turned into a hip Bar/Restaurant
http://www.chowbaby.com/img/Redroom.gif

Maiden of Orleans (Joan of Arch) statue was given to the people of New Orleans from France in 1972
http://www.neworleanscvb.com/phototour/images/photos/LAN_08_n.jpg

Spanish Plaza was a gift from the people of Spain to New Orleans in 1978.
http://www.figstreet.com/guesthouse/Images/spanishplaza1.jpg

[SpongeG]

i never knew the statur of liberty was a gift for egypt before - interesting

[blade_bltz]

We've got so much Japanese stuff from Kyoto in Boston that I dont know where to begin, but I suppose the most obvious are the Japanese magnolias and cherry trees that line streets like Newbury and Commonwealth. The MFA, while not city-run by any stretch of the imagination, has the largest collection of Japanese art in the world outside of Japan, much of it being donated as gifts from Kyoto and also from Dr. William Clark's private collection (Clark, a Massachusetts senator, president of Umass, and founder of Hokkaido University, is quite famous in Japan for his departing phrase, '"Boys, be ambitious!"). There are many small Japanese tea-houses tucked here and there throughout the Back Bay, all of which are gifts from Kyoto or Hokkaido.

Also, God willing, Boston will be receiving the "gift" of one Matsuzaka Daisuke by Friday night.

Dr. Clark is my hero. I've been quoting "boys, be ambitious" for years now. When they started the "Ambitious Japan" campaign and started putting it on the shinkansen....man I was excited.

And indeed, our collective wish was granted. If I ever get a chance to see Matsuzaka at Fenway, I'm totally bringing a sign: "Daisuke-kun, be ambitious!"

[DruidCity]

Tuscaloosa has exchanged gifts with its sister cities : Narashino, Japan and Schorndorf, Germany. Items are on display at City Hall, plus Narashino gave the city and university a couple of small displays of cherry trees.
Narashino also donated over a couple thousand dollars to the local Salvation Army after Katrina.

Tuscaloosa was also gifted a 500-pound piece of the World Trade Center in NYC to use as a union workers memorial, which is currently in the design process.

[pricemazda]

London gets a Norwegian Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square every year from the people of Oslo to say thanks for liberating them from the Nazis.

[LostInTheZone]

Seems that Mussolini was indeed fond of gifting ancient Roman artifacts to other cities. Anyone know of any other examples?

[hauntedheadnc]

...Items are on display at City Hall...

That's pretty much all we've got going on here -- a bunch of little things in display cases at City Hall. Things like dolls and crystalware. I think we do more for our sister cities than they do for us. We've hosted delegations of teachers, artists, and economic development officials who want to see if they can do what we've done in their cities. We've also sent financial aid to our sister cities when the occasion calls for it, such as when the Beslan school massacre occurred 15 miles from our sister city of Vladikavkaz, Russia. We sent them $12,000 worth of medical supplies and money.

For some reason, we're fond of giving wheelchairs as gifts to our sister cities. Six went to San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, and five to Karpenisi, Greece. San Cris' also got $10,000 for a midwife program courtesy of Asheville.

I'm really beginning to think we're getting stiffed here. Maybe if we make a fuss we'll get a statue or a fountain or something.

[lexberg]

The City of Moscow donated to Helsinki in 1990 a sculpture called "World Peace" (how imaginative, huh!). It is a VERY good (too good to be precise) example of Soviet Socialist Realism. It comprises five figures representing the inhabitants of the five continents. The work is cast in bronze and 6.5 metres high with its pedestal.

I'm sorry, but for god's sake, I'd like to throw that disgusting sculpture away from this city! Fortunately it is located on a square which is surrounded by some kind of ugly commieblocks, so it fits very well in.

http://www.taidemuseo.hel.fi/ximg/maailmanrauha1996-fix-pieni.jpg

[Xing]

Mexico... well, New Spain gave the US a bunch of skilled workers, who are also the nation's latest political tool and punching bag.

[DruidCity]

That's pretty much all we've got going on here -- a bunch of little things in display cases at City Hall. Things like dolls and crystalware.

Yep. There has been some talk in recent years about possibly building a small "Sister Cities Park" in our riverfront area. It's one of those types of things, though, that gets talked about and everybody says it sounds like a pretty neat idea, but when it comes down to paying for it, people move on to the next subject, like fixing a pothole in the street or replacing a street lamp.