Zee Beam News

12.09.2006 MosNews - A 100-feet monument by Moscow sculptor commemorating victims of terrorism in the United States has been unveiled in New Jersey, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday. Zurab Tsereteli’s Tear of Sorrow to the more than 3,000 victims of 9/11 attacks and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York left St. Petersburg for the U.S. last August. The names of those who lost their lives are inscribed on the bronze monument. The 150-metric ton monument is a gift from the Russian government. At the unveiling ceremony, the sculptor said, “All that I can say is in front of you. This Tear of Sorrow will become a tear of joy if the U.S. and Russia unite in the fight against terrorism.” The centerpiece of the monument — a huge crystal sculpture representing a tear with water pumped inside it — sits atop a 30-meter-tall bronze-plated iron stele cut in half. Bill Clinton and Secretary of the Homeland Security Department Michael Chertoff attended the unveiling ceremony. In September 2003, Tsereteli, who has been both praised and criticized for mammoth bronze monuments in Moscow, and the mayor of New Jersey agreed to have the monument erected on the Hudson peer overlooking the World Trade Center redevelopment site. However, the mayor died and New Jersey City Hall refused the Russian sculptor’s gift because local residents objected. Controversy also emerged when it transpired that the sculptor had mistakenly included the names of about 40 people on the monument who had survived the attacks, but were on some lists of presumed fatalities. In March 2005, the authorities of nearby Bayonne offered a site for the monument.