Philadelphia welcomes more LOVE to the Parkway

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia is fast becoming the avenue of love.

It has just gained another LOVE sculpture, but this one is in Spanish: AMOR.

Robert Indiana’s AMOR sculpture looks just like his famous sculpture in LOVE Park — big red letters stacked on top of each other. It now stands at 18th and the Parkway, a stone’s throw from LOVE Park (now under reconstruction).

For a year and a half it had been atop the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on temporary loan since the visit by  Pope Francis. The city of Philadelphia has now acquired the sculpture permanently, with help from the Art Museum, the Association for Public Art, and the Morgan Art Foundation, which donated $350,000 to buy it.

Speaking on behalf of the artist, representative Simon Salama-Caro said Robert Indiana has a soft spot for Philadelphia.

“Robert Indiana has said his LOVE image is a one-word poem, represents how he sees the world. That’s what inspired him to make the AMOR sculpture,” said Salama-Caro. “Demographics are changing in the U.S., and he wanted to offer the universal language of love to the people who speak Spanish as their native language.”

U.S. Census data shows that, in 2014, 10,000 people moved to Philadelphia; and 30 percent of them were of Latin American descent.

AMOR is situated amid the international flags lining the Parkway.