Statue of Liberty’s original torch moved to museum site

Statue of Liberty’s original torch moved to museum site

NEW YORK

The Statue of Liberty’s original torch has been moved from the base of the statue to its new home in a museum that will open next year.

The torch was replaced with a replica in the 1980s.

Visitors watched recently as the base and the flame of the 3,600-pound torch were trucked slowly and carefully to the museum construction site about 100 yards from the statue.

The torch was removed in 1984 because officials with the National Park Service and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation determined that it was too badly damaged to restore.

A new torch was installed in 1985, and the old one was placed in a museum in the statue’s base.

The new Statue of Liberty Museum will open in May 2019.

Hotel planned for Panama City Beach airport

WEST BAY, Fla.

The Northwest Beaches International Airport will soon have a hotel on property to accommodate increasing passenger traffic.

The News Herald reports that the St. Joe Company has announced plans to break ground next year on a 110- to 125-room hotel on the property of the airport in West Bay, near Panama City Beach.

In 2017 the eight-year-old airport surpassed 900,000 passengers for the first time. Officials said had it not been for Hurricane Michael, which struck the area in October, the airport was on pace to surpass 1 million passengers this year.

St. Joe President and CEO Jorge Gonzalez said he hopes the hotel will open in 2020.

Disney details new ‘Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge’ attractions

ORLANDO, FlA.

“Star Wars” fans will soon be able to pilot the Millennium Falcon and face off against Kylo Ren in battle.

Disney recently announced some details of the new “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge” lands, opening in 2019. It also announced that composer John Williams, creator of the classic “Star Wars” themes, is writing new music for the “Galaxy’s Edge” attractions, and shared a sneak preview.

The two signature attractions of the “lands” now under construction will be “Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run,” in which guests can take the controls in three different roles, and “Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance,” offering an “epic battle” between the First Order and the Resistance.

The attractions are to open at Disneyland Resort in summer 2019 and at Walt Disney World Resort in the fall.

Banksy exhibit opens in Milan on heels of auction stunt

MILAN

The MUDEC museum in Milan is hosting the first exhibit of street-artist Banksy’s works in an Italian public museum, just weeks after the artist grabbed international attention by partially shredding one of his works at a London auction.

Curator Gianni Mercurio said that the stunt boosted the artist’s popularity with the general public but also the art establishment.

Mercurio said that “this performance and the explosion of prices of works by Banksy has gathered interest from certain mechanisms and people in the art system that had up until now snubbed him.”

The show, which runs until April 14, is not authorized by the British artist, whose identity remains famously unknown.

Associated Press