Isamu Noguchi’s 40-ton granite sculpture Mississippi Fountain (also known as The Mississippi, 1961–62) is relocating to the New Orleans Museum of Art (Noma), according to the New Orleans Museum of Art. The monumental public artwork will be installed at the museum’s Beaux Arts entrance in City Park, where its integrated water feature will be restored to functionality after years of non-operation.
Crane Lift and Transport Details for the 40-Ton Granite Sculpture
Transporting the massive minimalist sculpture from the Central Business District to its new home requires precise logistical coordination this autumn. According to project plans, the roughly 40-ton granite column—topped by a crescent capital—will be lifted approximately 40 feet into the air by crane, secured inside a custom steel “cage,” and loaded onto a large transport truck.
Historical Context and Connection to Gordon Bunshaft
The sculpture was originally designed as part of a nearly 20-year collaboration between Isamu Noguchi and architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Between 1951 and 1968, the pair partnered on several major design projects, including The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube) (1960–64) at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and the Sunken Garden (1964) at 28 Liberty Street in Manhattan, according to museum documentation. Mississippi Fountain was specifically crafted for a building at Harmony Circle that initially housed the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, with its title alluding to the Mississippi River flowing several blocks to the east.
Did you know?
The former John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Building at 1055 St. Charles Avenue—frequently called K&B Plaza after being purchased by the Katz & Besthoff drugstore chain in 1973—was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 and put up for sale in October 2025.
Provenance, The Besthoff Family Donation, and Precedent
After K&B’s corporate headquarters closed following its 1997 sale to Rite Aid, the building housed a significant portion of Sydney and Walda Besthoff’s art collection. Many of those sculptures were later donated to Noma and placed in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
This relocation represents only the second time a collaboration between Noguchi and Bunshaft has been physically separated, according to museum records. The first instance involved the 1956–57 granite triad The Family in Bloomfield, Connecticut, which was designed for the Wilde Building at the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company headquarters. Matthew Kirsch of the Noguchi Museum noted that the work was left “adrift and isolated from its intended relationship with the campus buildings” after developers razed the neighboring Emhart Building in 2003. Cigna later sent the sculpture to Sotheby’s, where it sold for $12.3 million at auction in 2023, setting a new artist record.
Balancing Lost Context With Reactivated Function
Noguchi viewed the relationship between sculpture and architecture as irrevocable. In a 1968 essay for Studio International, he wrote that “the sculptor is not merely a decorator of buildings but a serious collaborator with the architect in the creation of significant space and of significant shapes which define this space.” He expressed deep frustration when his 1974–75 work Shinto was removed from the Bank of Tokyo lobby in 1980, complaining to the acquiring collector that without its intended setting, the piece “had lost its intended function and meaning, rendering it purposeless.”
Amy Hau, director of the Noguchi Museum, acknowledged the tension of the move, stating that the connection between the sculpture and the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Building is “impossible to replicate elsewhere, and there is certainly something to mourn in the loss of its original context.” However, Hau added that “at the same time, in its new home at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Mississippi Fountain will be reactivated as Noguchi intended. While its original architectural context has been lost, its accessibility and long-term stewardship have been significantly strengthened, and an essential aspect of the work, its relationship to flowing water, will once again be experienced.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Mississippi Fountain moving?
The sculpture is relocating from downtown New Orleans to the Beaux Arts entrance of the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park.
When will the relocation take place?
The transport and installation are scheduled to occur this autumn.
What sculpture is currently at the NOMA entrance?
Roy Lichtenstein’s 1983–84 sculpture Five Brushstrokes has welcomed visitors at the entrance since 2013 and will be moved into the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
Who donated the sculpture to NOMA?
The Besthoff family donated Mississippi Fountain in honor of Sydney Besthoff III.
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