"Clothespin" sculpture has been a downtown fixture for 47 years

State of play: A crane placed the 10-ton clothespin on its pedestal at the 15th and Market Streets subway station on June 25, 1976, which marked the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence.

• It was designed by artist Claes Oldenburg, whose colossal works of art of ordinary objects are found around the world.

Zoom in: Oldenburg compared the rusty steel sculpture to Constantin Brancusi’s “The Kiss,” which can be seen in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, per the Association for Public Art.

• The metal spring is supposed to look like the number 76, per The New York Times.

Of note: Oldenburg died last year.