Iconic Chicago Art Piece Seen Cruising Down I-290 On A Flatbed Truck

The city of Chicago is littered with iconic art pieces. Now one of those pieces is going away for a bit to get some litter off of it.

The lions outside the Chicago Art Museum were installed in May of 1894.

Artic.edu - Sculpted in active poses, the lion on the north pedestal is “on the prowl.” The other, “in an attitude of defiance” on the south pedestal was, according to the artist, “the most difficult I have ever attempted.”

That quote was definitely a TIL for me. I never knew that the lions were different. And, if this picture of a set of bookends you can order for your home is correct, they are slightly different!

I can definitely see how one of those is "on the prowl."

Anyway.

They were loaded up onto a flatbed truck Wednesday morning and then hauled into the suburbs to get polished up. Kind of the opposite of the people who head in from the suburbs to one of those downtown elective surgery places.

And here they are in their temporary home in the western suburbs.

Along the way they were spotted by someone on the blue line when they were cruising south down I-290.

The bronze statues will be gone for about a month before they're loaded back up and returned to their rightful places, guarding the Chicago Art Institute.

The lions have adorned many of Chicago's sports teams gear when they make a playoff run. Hopefully, the lions will have a beautiful White Sox jersey to wear when it returns later this summer.