Statue of Liberty: Who Is She?
When Frederic Bartholdi unveiled his colossal sculpture of the Statue of Liberty in 1886, spectators wanted to know who the masculine-featured diva was that served as his model. Was she his mother? His wife? His mistress, perhaps?  Some speculated that she was the Egyptian goddess Isis, Mary Magdalene or the Biblical Whore of Babylon.

Others argued that Lady Liberty wasn't a lady at all, but a man in drag. Bartholdi took the secret of her identity to his grave....but he left behind evidence.

HER BODY

Bartholdi shamelessly copied three designs from other sculptors for his American monument - one for her body, one for her pedestal and another for her head.  His first copied design was the Colossus of Rhodes built in 304 BC as a celebration of freedom. Like the statue of liberty, it rose to the same height from head to toe and loomed over the entrance to another busy harbor on the island of Rhodes. The Statue of Liberty's radiating crown with its seven giant sun-ray spikes is a carbon copy of the Rhodian sculpture built in honor of the Sun God, Helios. His seven rays symbolized the seven seas and seven continents over which he ruled. It took twelve years for the sculptor, Chares of Lindos, to build his giant ‘wonder of the ancient world'. Fifty-six years later, the island of Rhodes was struck by a violent earthquake that shook the giant off his feet and cast him down like a child's toy into a broken and ruined heap.

HER  PEDESTAL

To build the pedestal, stairway, observation deck and torch, Bartholdi copied another ‘wonder of the ancient world' - the four hundred foot tall Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria, Egypt which had been commissioned by Ptolemy I, in 290BC. Tourists could climb up to the observation platform at the first le vel and continue climbing to the very top of the tower where a smaller balcony showcased the breathtaking panorama of sea and sky.  For 1500 years, it stood on Egypt's island of Pharos in Alexandria Harbor.  The multiple mirrors at the top of the lighthouse reflected sunlight during the day. At night, its leaping flames licked the star studded sky and guided seafarers into Alexandria harbor.

HER HEAD
To create his American Statue, Bartholdi used the same mystery woman that he had sketched for his failed Egyptian statue.
THE FAME

Investigative reporters in America had a reputation for digging up dirt on people. Bartholdi feared they would dig up his dirty little secret that the Statue of Liberty was a recycled version of his failed Egyptian statue. To cover up the truth, he altered the robe and hairstyle on his American statue and added spiked rays emanating from her crown like the Colossus of Rhodes.

Bartholdi built a four-foot clay miniature model first, then a complete nine foot tall (2.85 meters) cast in plaster, followed by four more proportional enlargements until it had grown to one-fourth the size of his planned masterpiece. With each increase in size, nine thousand mathematical calculations and measurements had to be painstakingly made.

Freemason Gustave Eiffel designed and engineered the intricate skeleton for the statue using four gigantic steel supports as the main structural framework.  Eiffel's claim to fame was his phallic 984-foot tall Eiffel Tower of iron and steel.  By 1876, Liberty's thirty-foot long arm traveled to the United States with Bartholdi and turned him into a household name across America. Once Americans learned that they would be able to climb up to the balcony of the sky high torch for a mere fifty cents and gaze at the million dollar view of New York harbor, they were sold on it. The gleaming copper head also went on display creating an even bigger sensation but not big enough to solve the unending problem of raising the money to complete it.

THE LIE

The American press turned ugly.  Reporters tore into Bartholdi like a pack of pit bulls when they discovered that the Statue of Liberty was a dusted off version of his rejected Egyptian statue. "The Statue is not a statue of liberty at all," they protested. "It has nothing whatsoever to do with liberty!"

By  trivializing the facts, Bartholdi bobbed and weaved, ducked and side stepped the accusations. "My Egyptian statue for the Suez canal ended then and there. Any resemblance it may have had to New York's Statue of Liberty is purely coincidental", defended Bartholdi in broken english. The American press didn't buy it. They reported that the French sculptor had outright lied to the American people when he told them he had fashioned only "one" terra-cotta model for the Suez Canal project.  In reality, he had made five!  All of them were prototypes of the future Statue of Liberty, some with a torch or lantern in her left hand, some with it in her right hand.  In all of them, she is wearing a long Greek chiton (??t??). Over the chiton, she is wearing another garment, called the himation (?µ?t???).

Bartholdi had already admitted on record that the model for the Egyptian project was an Egyptian woman. His earliest 1870 model with the torch-lifting pose was the most damning evidence. It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the American statue, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World', was a dusted off version of the aborted Egypt statue, ‘Egypt Bringing Light to Asia'. Both were colossal, robed, torch-bearing women serving as lighthouses, both were sited for key points astride major world waterways and both passed their ‘symbolic messages' from one continent to another.

To further Americanize his recycled Egyptian statue, Bartholdi added the date of the American Declaration of Independence onto the cover of the book held in the statue's left hand - July IV MDCCLCCVI.  No one asked why the date was written in ancient Roman numerals.  No one clued in to the connection between Lady Liberty and the ancient Roman goddess ‘Libertas'  which is latin for ‘Liberty'.

PIGGYBANKS OF AMERICA

Because of the stellar costs of the French gift to America, the brotherhood decided that French and American citizens should foot the bill. French citizens would pay for the statue.  American citizens would pay for the pedestal and foundation. Masonic brothers from both France and the United States formed a fund-raising committee called the Franco-American Union.  By the time Libertas was ready to be shipped from France, little progress had been made on the other side of the Atlantic. Controversy continued to swirl over the origin of the statue and its mammoth costs.

Some American citizens had the good sense to ask, "why does the gift's pedestal cost as much as the gift itself and why should we foot the bill for our own gift?"  Americans living outside of New York considered it New York's statue. "Let New York pay for it!" To make matters worse, the wealthy French and American elite were allergic to the word ‘non-profit' and wanted no part of the costly ‘non-profit' project.

Public apathy in America became almost as monumental as the gift itself.  By 1884, after years of pedestal fund-raising, only $182,491 had been raised.  The fundraising committee brainstormed the idea of a public lottery. They pried open public wallets   with prizes that included two works of art by Bartholdi himself.  In another scheme, they sold signed clay models of his statue to both the French and American public. By the end of 1879, about 250,000 francs (approximately $750,000 U.S.) had been raised but ‘completing her' in time for America's 100th anniversary was an impossible dream.

Lady Liberty's trip to America had to wait until she had a pedestal to stand on. In the meantime, she was grounded in Paris.  Joseph Pulitzer, a Jewish multimillionaire and owner of the American financial newspaper, The World, saw a golden opportunity to increase the size of his newspaper circulation. "Let us not wait for the millionaires to give this money," said the multi-millionaire. "It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America." Pulitzer's World newspaper circulation surged by almost 50,000 copies and  single-dollar donations from grandmothers and pennies from the piggybanks of America's schoolchildren began trickling in.

STRANGE RITUALS

By the time pedestal construction got underway, work had to be delayed until the cornerstone was laid in strict accordance with Masonic rituals.  By American tradition, cornerstones of major public and private buildings like the Washington monument had to be "consecrated" first with full Masonic rites and ceremony.  The tradition began in 1793 when Freemasonic U.S. President George Washington personally laid the cornerstone of the Capitol Building with the assistance of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Maryland.

It rained cats and dogs on August 5, 1884, the day of the private cornerstone ceremony.  The elite guests boarded a boat draped with the red, white and blue flags of France and the United States. The vessel ferried approximately one hundred Freemason members of the Grand Lodge of New York, U.S. civic officials and the visiting French Masonic Grand Officers to Liberty (Bedloe's) Island.   A United States Army band played the French National Anthem, "La Marseillaise," followed by "Hail Columbia" which named "the band of brothers joined" in its lyrics.

MYSTERY BOX

The cornerstone was laid on the raised northeast corner of Liberty's pedestal with the same trowel used by Masonic President George Washington.  Masonic men in black lowered a mysterious copper box inside the cornerstone containing a collection of strange mementos; twenty bronze medals of Masonic Presidents including Washington, Monroe, Jackson, Polk, Buchanan, Johnson and Garfield, a portrait of sculptor Bartholdi, a list on parchment of the Masonic Grand Lodge officers and a medal commemorating the erection of an Egyptian obelisk in Central Park at 81st street.  Like the Washington monument, obelisks are tall, narrow, needle-like monuments built in honor of the Egyptian sun God ‘Amen' (also spelled ‘Amun' or ‘Amon') meaning ‘the hidden one'.

No one questioned why a medal commemorating the erection of an Egyptian obelisk was placed inside the box.  After the cornerstone was found to be square, level and plumb, the Freemason Grand Master applied the mortar and the stone containing the Masonic box of strange mementos was lowered into place.  The Grand Master struck the stone three times with a gavel and declared it duly laid. Then the elements of "consecration" were presented - corn, wine, and oil known to be the "master's wages" in the days of Hebrew King Solomon.

DELIVERY

Lady Liberty remained grounded in Paris until the spring of 1885 when she was finally dismantled into three hundred pieces for the long ocean voyage to America.  Every copper plate and beam was coded and packed into two hundred and fourteen wooden crates and transported on a seventy-car train to the coast where they were loaded onto a French frigate named "Isere" (Isis).  After thirty days battling mid-Atlantic storms at sea, Isere sailed into New York Harbor on June 15, 1885 carrying its precious cargo.

It took fifteen months to reassemble the two hundred and twenty-five tons of pure copper, steel and iron and six months to mount Liberty to her base.  Upon completion, she rose up majestically above her new island home toasting a torch to the sky and cradling a book in her arm as big as a Cineplex movie screen.  Her nose alone measured four feet six inches long.  She stood one-hundred and twenty feet tall from foot to crown on an eighty-nine foot pedestal.  Three hundred and fifty-four stairs led up into her head and crown where twenty-five viewing windows peered out over New York city.  Back dropped by the misty Manhattan skyline, her colossal size and goddess-like aura mesmerized all who gazed up at her.

THE UNVEILING

Flashing camera bulbs and a swarm of reporters pursued Bartholdi and his wife as they arrived in America for the public unveiling ceremony on October 25, 1886. Like movie stars at an Academy Awards presentation, dignitaries from both France and the United States gathered together in gowns and tuxedos for the celebration. U.S. President Grover Cleveland and his cabinet, the governor of New York and his staff, the French ambassador and the French Committee of Freemasons were all in attendance.  Even America's wealthiest families who hadn't donated one red cent had the audacity to show up.  It was a day of such grand importance that October 28th was designated an American public holiday.

The weather gods looked down on the public ceremony with the same disrespect as the private one and spit on it.  Despite the steady downpour, ships, yachts and boats of all sizes dotted New York harbor. On board, shivering spectators held binoculars in one hand and umbrellas in the other.  Through their binoculars, they witnessed a blanket of fog rolling across the harbor to cloud the view.

On land, one million people jammed New York's city streets to watch the ceremonial parade.  White ticker tape fluttered down from Wall Street's trading floor windows filling the air with a blizzard of white streamers.  Freemasonic Grand Marshal, Charles P. Stone, led the Masonic Lodges and the Freemason paraders from 57th Street past Madison Square Park down to the Battery. The groups were ferried across the harbor by steamer to Liberty (Bedloe's) Island for the formal presentation of my statue and pedestal to U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

NO WOMEN ALLOWED

The brotherhood of Freemasonry was a "no women allowed" organization. An exception was made for two women who were given special permission to set foot on the island that day.  One was Bartholdi's wife and the other was the colossal mystery woman with copper skin.

THE BLUNDER

Her face was covered with a red, white and blue French flag. Bartholdi climbed the three hundred and fifty-four steps up to her crown to personally unveil her. He stood alone like King Kong staring down at the awe-struck crowd.  For dramatic effect, his job was to pull a silken cord and unveil Liberty's face at the climax of the ceremonial event.  Cell phones had not been invented yet and a ‘signal boy' was hired to stand on the ground holding a red handkerchief.  He was told to wave the handkerchief and signal Bartholdi to pull the cord immediately after Senator William M. Evarts' presentation speech. During a pause in Evarts speech, the signal boy mistakenly assumed the speech was over and waved the handkerchief.  Bartholdi yanked prematurely on the cord for the climaxing moment and exposed the gleaming copper face of his ‘Mystery Woman Enlightening the World'. Whistles blew, guns blasted, bands played...and the speechless Evarts sat down. All eyes looked up at Liberty's face but the only eyes that recognized her were the eyes of the brotherhood.

Bartholdi died of tuberculosis in Paris on October 5, 1904.  U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt sent a message of condolence to his wife in the name of the American people.  Forever true to the brotherhood, Bartholdi took the secret of Lady Liberty's identity to his grave.

ISIS OF NEW YORK

The Statue Of Liberty was conceived by Freemasons, financed by Freemasons, built by Freemasons and installed by Freemasons in Freemasonic ceremonies. The ritualistic presentation made by the French Grand Orient Temple Masons to the Masons of America was a celebration of the centenary of the Masonic Republics of France and America. New York's Egyptian, torch bearing goddess, went to work immediately as an icon of liberty.  Like the female equivalent of Uncle Sam, her image appeared everywhere.  To help finance American participation in World War I, the U.S. Treasury Department turned her into a patriotic rallying symbol of Liberty and used her on propoganda posters to raise funds for war. With her help, the U.S. government sold fifteen billion dollars worth of bonds equal to about half the cost of World War I.

As recently as August 5, 1984, the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of New York observed the Centenary of the private Masonic ‘laying of the cornerstone' that contained the box of strange mementos.  Masonic and government dignitaries attended the ceremony on Liberty Island and a bronze plaque commemorating the original event was dedicated and affixed to the pedestal.

XRAYS, GUARD DOGS AND FINGER PRINTS

Face-recognition camera surveillance, thumb-scanning, X-rays and German shepherd guard dogs are a few of the liberty crushing obstacles facing visitors who come to Liberty island.  After their personal belongings are X-rayed by uniformed Wackenhut security men, they are ferried to the island under the watchful eye of Coast Guards and German Shepherd attack dogs. Once ashore, they are permitted to circle the island, take photos and buy overpriced slurpees. Before entering Lady Liberty, they are thumb printed and their belongings are stashed in a locker. Cash is not accepted as legal tender and payment must be made with plastic. In past years, visitors entered  Liberty's body and traveled up into her crown and torch where they feasted their eyes on the spectacular view of New York city and the harbor.  Both the crown and torch have been closed for security reasons. Her crown was closed on September 11, 2001 after the collapsing Twin Towers traumatized America.

LIBERTY AND FREEDOM

While Bartholdi and his work crew were busy building the statue into a symbol of liberty, none of the women in France or the United States enjoyed equal rights or fair social and political liberties.  France was one of the last European nations to give women the vote.  Even the presence of women on Liberty island at the dedication ceremony was strictly forbidden.

For Immigrants and African Americans, the Statue Of Liberty is a symbol of freedom, yet none of the speeches by U.S. President Grover Cleveland and other officials at the dedication mentioned a single word about immigrants.  No one bothered to ask, "what does a white woman dressed in a robe, holding a book in one hand and a torch in the other hand have to do with liberty?" or "who is this colossal female figure and why did she deserve her own island, an altar, a national holiday, the ceremonial dedication of Presidents, the worship of millions and the spending of millions?"

THREE LADY LIBERTY'S

Yes.  There are three Statues of Liberty - the New York Statue and two sister statues in France.  Before brother Bartholdi and brother Eiffel built their full scale statue, two smaller scale models were constructed. The smallest of the two models is the original ‘life size' miniature mold for the American statue.  It stands fifteen feet tall on a Paris pedestal amongst the flowers and fountains of Luxembourg Gardens, home to the French government's Senate in Paris.

Standing on Swan Ally island in the Seine River stands, yet another, larger statue  measuring thirty-five feet in height on its base.  This exact replica was inaugurated on November 15, 1889 and given to the French by the Americans to commemorate the Centennial of the French Revolution.  The book held by this statue is inscribed with the dates of the US and French revolutions.  IV Juillet 1776 and XIV Julliet 1789. When Bartholdi learned that his Swan Alley statue faced the Eiffel Tower, he flew into a rage and demanded that it be turned around to face his American statue.

BLACK LADY LIBERTY?

Some of Liberty's African American observers believe that a black woman served as Bartholdi's model for the statue. When Bartholdi presented his original model of his statue to the United States, she was black in color with broken chains at her feet. The chains were interpreted to symbolize the end to black slavery in America.  Bartholdi made only one explicit reference to the history of the United States and that was the date, July 4, 1776, written in raised Roman numerals on the book held in her left hand.

The belief that the model for the Statue of Liberty was a ‘black woman' grew from  the fact that the American statue copied Bartholdi's African Egyptian woman that he had designed for his failed Egyptian statue.  Both French statues of Lady Liberty are black, but a close study of their racial features reveals that they are distinctly Greco-Roman, not African. The dark color results from the oxidization process.

The French statues of liberty are believed by some experts to be Black Madonnas. Each year, hundreds of thousands of European pilgrims ritually humble themselves before the image of Black Mary and her child Jesus at Black Madonna sites throughout France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and other Roman Catholic countries.  Worshippers have literally kissed the paint off of the hands and feet of some of the Black Madonna statues.  The origin of the Madonna's blackness is based on Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend which describes an Egyptian girl named Sarah who was assumed to be the dark skinned daughter of Mary Magdelene and Jesus.  The French town of Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in southern France still celebrates an annual festival in honor of Sarah.

EGYPTIAN GODDESS ISIS?

The name Paris is thought to originate from ‘Par-Isis' meaning ‘the Grove of Isis'. The city's oldest church St. Germain-des-Prés, built in AD 542, was constructed over a former temple of Isis and displays a black statue called the Virgin Mary. Prior to 1514, the statue was worshipped as the goddess Isis.  Many of the Black Madonnas were originally statues of Isis including the famed Black Virgin of Notre Dame du Puy.  Until Christianity replaced Isis with Mary, she was the patron goddess of Paris.

Like his French Freemason brothers, Bartholdi was deeply steeped in ‘Egyptian' rituals. Masonic teachings describe Isis as the "divine mother of ancient Egypt ", supreme in her magical cunning, power and knowledge.  Her crown, called ‘the crown of Isis', is easily recognized with its solar disk locked in the horns of a bull.

For almost three thousand five hundred years, Isis remained the principle goddess of Egypt. She married her brother Osiris and gave birth to their son Horus.  These three gods - Isis, Osiris and Horus dominated ancient Egyptian culture. Their story embraces all of the theatrics of a Shakespearian tragedy. Once upon a time…an ancient Egytian King named Osiris (Assur) ruled as the first King of the first kingdom on Earth.  His evil brother, Seth, and a group of co-conspirators murdered King Osiris, then castrated him and scattered pieces of his dismembered phallus into the Nile River.  Isis, wandered the banks of the Nile by night, "torch in hand", searching for the remains of her husband.  She gathered up the scattered parts and put them back together again.  By conjuring up her magic powers, Isis res-erected Osiris from the dead and copulated with him. From that union, she gave birth to their son, Horus (Heru). Osiris became King of Heaven, Lord of the Underworld and Judge of the Dead. The dead must answer to him for their deeds and misdeeds on Earth.  Isis became Queen Of Heaven and Mother of God. Their son, Horus, became the father of Pharaohs and the progenitor of the bloodline of "divine" kings after he avenged his father's death and killed his murderer in combat.

The parallels between the Egyptian virgin Goddess "Isis" and the "Virgin Mary" are unmistakable. Like Isis, the virgin Mary is the eternally virgin "Queen of Heaven". Isis is the virgin mother of Horus, the son of God. Mary is the virgin mother of Jesus, the son of God. After Europe was brutally and forcibly Christianized, worshippers were coerced into replacing Isis and Horus with Mary and Jesus.

"…The secret system of Free Masonry was originally founded on the Mysteries of the Egyptian Isis". Her importance is enshrined today in the magnificent temple built by the Ancient Egyptians on the island of Philae and restored at great cost by UNESCO. Inscribed inside the temple are the words,  "I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; No mortal man hath ever me unveiled. The fruit which I have brought forth is the ‘SUN'."  Metaphorically speaking, Isis is the celestial mother of the Sun (son) of god. When the word ‘Mason' is broken into two parts, "Ma/Son", it means "Mother Sun".

WHORE OF BABYLON?
To solve the mystery of Lady Liberty's identity, ambitious researchers puzzled together key quotes from the Bible and concluded that Lady Liberty must be the ‘Whore of Babylon' described in the Book of Revelation and Isaiah. "And the woman… having a golden cup in her hand…And upon her forehead was a name written: Mystery Babylon the great, mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth."(Revelation 17:5)  "How much she has glorified herself, and lived deliciously…for she says in her heart, I sit a queen"(Revelation 18:7)  "…virgin daughter of Babylon…I shall be a lady forever."(Isaiah 47:7) These Biblical quotes describe a mystery woman, a Queen, a harlot, a virgin and a lady who holds a golden cup in her hand. Like the ‘Whore of Babylon', the Statue Of Liberty is wearing the crown of a Queen and she is called "the Lady" and "Lady Liberty".  Originally, she held a golden cup (globe flame) in her outstretched hand until New York City authorities replaced it with a natural gas "torch light".

The mystery woman described in the Book of Revelation rules over seven mountains (continents) and over the waters (seven seas) and over the "peoples, multitudes, nations and languages."  (Revelation 17:9, 15)  The crown of the Colossus of Rhodes and Lady Liberty's seven spiked crown symbolize the seven continents and the seven seas of the Earth.

Like the mystery woman of Revelation, the Roman goddess ‘Libertas' was called a ‘whore' and the ‘mother of harlots', yet she was also called the "virgin" daughter of Babylon.  The Romans worshipped Isis between 600 and 400 B.C and renamed her ‘Libertas', meaning ‘liberty'.  The concepts of ‘virgin' and ‘whore' appear to be contradictory but in ancient times, Isis (Ishtar)  introduced the practice of holy prostitution and holy sex.  Sex became a holy ritual for removing sin. In return for  holy sex performed by her priestesses (prostitutes),  Isis received a coin-offering (money).  Those who disapproved of Isis and her holy sex-for-money rituals called her the "Whore of Babylon" and the "Mother of Harlots".

‘Babylon the Great' once thrived as a mighty Mesopotamian city and sea port of commerce and trade. New York city is the modern day Babylon.  It is the financial and vice capital of the world and home to Wall Street's most powerful multi-national corporations. It is the headquarters of the United Nations where the "kings (leaders) of the earth" gather.  In Revelation, Babylon is said to be "the great city which reigns over the "kings of the earth" and "the merchants of the earth have grown rich from Babylon's excessive luxuries".  (Revelation 17,18).  New York city is a mirror of ancient Babylon with its sin, fraud, deceit, vice, luxury, materialism and all forms of iniquity.

Like the mystery woman of Babylon, the Statue of Liberty symbolizes both a woman and a city.  It is only fitting that an alluring statue of the ‘Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth' should stand astride a world-renowned port beckoning the world to enter her. Since she was first erected in 1886, Lady Liberty has been entered by millions of strangers for the price of a cheap harlot.

The city of Babylon in the United States is located only minutes from the Statue of Liberty on Long Island and was named after the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon. The great gate of Isis (Ishtar), which long ago served as the main entrance to the ancient city of Babylon, was flanked by twin towers.  Prior to the questionable events of September 11th, 2001, the Statue of Liberty was also flanked by Twin Towers.

MAN   IN   DRAG?

Looming larger than the Statue of Liberty are the persistent questions about Liberty's masculine Greco-Roman features.  Many have wondered if her sculptor was bold enough to use a male model and place the head of a man on the shoulders of a woman's body.  Despite her stern looking, implacable face, Lady Liberty's body is unmistakably female.

PREGNANT MARY MAGDELENE
Mary Magdalene is a woman without a past.  The gospels are  strangely silent about where she came from, what she looked like,  who her family was, how she was educated or what she did to support Jesus and the disciples ‘out of her own means'. The information blackout has provoked speculation that the Bible's leading lady had something sinister to hide.  Did the early church suppress the truth about Mary Magdelene as Dan Brown suggests in The Da Vinci Code?

Like Leonardo Da Vinci, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was a world renowned artist and a member of a secretive brotherhood. Like Da Vinci, he coded secret knowledge about Mary Magdelene into his work.  Since 1886, Bartholdi's colossal Statue of Liberty masterpiece has reigned over America from her island home in Upper New York bay. For more than a century, the unsuspecting public has failed to notice or even question the odd shape of Liberty's body. Draped in a classical Greek ‘chiton' (??t??) robe and himation (?µ?t???), her body balloons out at the mid-section like a woman in her sixth month of pregnancy. Her bloated belly cannot be explained away as the bulky folds of her robe or a plump, plus-size body. Judging from her powerful face, neck and muscular arms, she is trim and fit and her robe should hang down in a straight line, not arc out at the midriff. Did Bartholdi intentionally build his statue to appear pregnant beneath the folds of her robe?  Was he delivering the same subliminal message that Da Vinci, Jose Antolinez, Giampiettrino and other artists passed down through their masterpieces – the message that Mary Magdelene conceived a child fathered by Jesus?

Aside from her ‘long hair' that she washed the feet of Jesus with, there are no  Biblical clues about what Mary Magdelene really looked like. Artistic portrayals of her are as diverse as the many artists who drew and sculpted her over the millennia. Most medieval artists brush stroked her with long red hair worn down over her shoulders - a sign of sexual promiscuity at the time.

When Frederic Auguste Bartholdi enshrined the pregnant Mary Magdelene in his Statue of Liberty, he knew the hidden truth about her intimate relationship with Jesus. He also knew another hidden truth about her. He knew that her name ‘Mary Magdelene' was an assumed name that she adopted to hide her real name, her true identity and her privileged past.