Giant Marilyn Monroe sculpture unveiled in Chicago

The three-part piece sculpture by artist Seward Johnson was unveiled in Pioneer Court alongside Tribune Tower.

It depicts Monroe as she appeared in an iconic scene in the 1955 movie “The Seven Year Itch,” where her dress goes flying up as she stands over a New York subway grate, leaving her underwear exposed.

One by one, group by group, admirers climbed onto the fake subway grate to take photos with the oversize Marilyn.

(...) The artists told CBS 2 the statue is intended to celebrate everything Marilyn stood for. That’s what art is supposed to do, he said.

The sculpture was built in a studio in New Jersey and brought to Chicago.  It is aluminum from the waist up, but below the waist she’s a woman of steel. That’s because so much is resting on those spike heels.