135 years after “Liberty Enlightening the World” was unveiled on Liberty Island, Lady Liberty’s younger sister sailed across the Atlantic in 2021. The Embassy of France in the United States, the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam) and the CMA CGM Group–a world leader in shipping and logistics–partnered to bring the emblematic treasure and symbol of freedom to the United States.

The nine-foot-tall, bronze statue was made from the original plaster model of 1878 by Auguste Bartholdi. The Little Sister was uninstalled from the CNAM before being placed in a specially designed plexiglass case before being put into a dedicated, branded shipping container. She then boarded the CMA CGM TOSCA (an 8,500 TEU shipping vessel) in Le Havre and traveled by sea over nine days. She spent Independence Day in on Ellis Island in New York and Bastille Day in Washington, D.C. where she now resides at the Ambassador’s Residence.

The Little Sister’s arrival celebrated the most central value of the French-American partnership: freedom, and the technological, artistic, and logistical challenges that had to be overcome to bring this statue to America tell a modern tale of successful international cooperation.

In addition to the Cnam and CMA CGM, this journey was made possible by the Ellis Island Foundation and the National Park Service and by CEVA Logistics (a subsidiary of the CMA CGM Group).