Reunited, and it feels so good. The replica statue of Rocky has been united with its new owner, and it is none other than Rocky Balboa himself, Sylvester Stallone. The statue was created along with the original by sculptor Thomas A. Schomberg.
The original statue currently sits outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it has been on display since the filming of the Rocky III movie. The replica had been on display many years at the San Diego Hall of Champions, however, after the founder passed away, the hall closed down, forcing them to place the statue up for auction.
Initially, the SDHC would not disclose the name of the auction winner, but they did confirm that the nine-foot-tall statue was sold for over $400,000!! TMZ later confirmed that Stallone was, in fact, the new owner of the statue.
Sylvester Stallone has never been known for his modesty. Before he became a legitimate actor, he was in an adult film where he was called the “Italian Stallion,” presumably because of his generous endowment in the private-parts area. After he wrote the script for Rocky, which was his break-through project, he got an offer to buy the script. He turned down the offer, which was for a considerable amount of money even though he was married, his wife was pregnant, and he was financially broke at the time. The reason he turned down the offer to sell his script is that he insisted that he would have to play the lead role in Rocky for any movie studio interested in making the film.
This was not an easy path to take. Yet, after many years of determined effort, he finally achieved success in getting Rocky made with him as the lead. The rest, as they say, is history. Stallone went on after a series of Rocky movies to play other iconic movie characters, such as Rambo. More recently, he was in The Expendables and its sequels, which he co-wrote with the creator David Callaham. This film series continued to make Stallone a relevant action movie actor, even with the newer generations. Yes, the fans love Sylvester Stallone, also as much as he loves himself.
On his Instagram account, Stallone published a video of movers unloading the statue.
“Welcome home,” Stallone commented. “It only took him, what, only 41 years to get to California.
