A bronze statue of Olympic gold medalist Yue Ling Chen is headed back to Chesterfield's Central Park after Mayor Dan Hurt cast the deciding vote to break a 4-4 deadlock on the city council. The $30,000 purchase deal, which also bundles in a stainless steel sculpture and a smaller bronze edition of Chen, ends months of back-and-forth after the life-size statue was pulled from its longtime spot along the Central Park lake trail.
The council's split vote capped a debate that had already been sent back to committee once, in June, for further review, according to St. Louis Magazine. The sculpture, which depicts Chen in mid-stride, had been on display through the city's art-on-loan arrangement before it was rotated out roughly six years before this year's purchase, and its removal reportedly triggered a wave of resident feedback asking for it to come back.
Jason Baucom, the city's superintendent of arts and entertainment, said the department received an outpouring of support for the return of the previously borrowed work. Fine Art Ltd., the Chesterfield-based publisher that supplied the piece, had allowed the city to display it free of charge and also brought several other privately owned artworks into town, part of a broader relationship that includes a stainless steel piece called Birds in Flight already on display in Central Park.
A $77,000 Collection for $30,000
According to the city, the bundled collection carries an estimated total value of $77,000, but Chesterfield negotiated the purchase deal down to $30,000. An anonymous donor pledged $15,000 toward the cost and specifically wanted the sculpture returned to its former lake trail location, while the city will pay the remaining $15,000 from parks fund reserves. The Chesterfield Parks, Recreation, and Arts Committee had recommended the purchase unanimously before it reached the full council.
Not everyone was on board. Then-parks director Tom McCarthy had recommended, per a city memo, that Chesterfield instead participate in the Creative Communities Alliance's Sculpture on the Move program rather than buy the artwork outright — a regional network founded in 2018 that rotates outdoor art across 28 Missouri and Kansas communities on two-year leases, according to the City of Manchester, MO. Council members also floated continuing that loan program, seeking out works from local artists, or simply buying less expensive art instead.
Council Members Divided Over Cost and Content
Opposition on the council came from A.J. Moll, Barbara McGuinness, Lane Koch, and Patricia Tocco. Moll said he considered the purchase price a good deal but ultimately voted against it after learning the city also needs to replace a broken fountain in Central Park. Council member Rob Kilo raised a different objection, saying the sculpture honors communist China — a claim that Robyn Carlstedt pushed back on in council discussion, defending both the artwork and Chen herself, the same report notes.
Supporters on the council included Gary Budoor, Merrell Hansen, Mary Ann Mastorakos, and Michael Moore, who joined Mayor Hurt's tiebreaking vote to push the deal through. Resident Wendy Geckeler, who called the statue her walking friend, supported bringing it back to the park, echoing sentiment that St. Louis Magazine reported had built steadily since the sculpture disappeared from the lake trail.
Who Is Yue Ling Chen
The statue commemorates a genuine piece of Olympic history. Yue Ling Chen won the inaugural women's Olympic 10-kilometer racewalk in 1992, becoming the first Chinese track-and-field athlete to win Olympic gold, a milestone detailed by The Athletics Museum, which notes she won in a time of 44:32 as the event made its Olympic debut in Barcelona. Chen later attended Brigham Young University, became an American citizen, and competed for the United States at the 2000 Olympics.
The bronze itself traces back to sculptor He Datian, a Chinese-born artist who gained prominence in the 1980s and has since produced commemorative Olympic artwork and public bronzes, per the St. Louis Arts Chamber of Commerce. His international profile has only grown; global spirits brand Maison Martell selected him in February to create artwork and calligraphy for its Year of the Horse limited-edition release, according to Cassius Life. Fine Art Ltd., which supplied the Chesterfield piece, keeps its own gallery and headquarters on Chesterfield Airport Road and has published commemorative art for international events, including commissions tied to the U.S. Olympic Committee.
A Growing Public Art Collection
Chesterfield had a chance to buy the Chen sculpture once before, back in 2019, but passed at the time. Its return will add to an already substantial outdoor collection at Central Park, which includes eight public artworks such as J. Seward Johnson Jr.'s 840-inch aluminum installation The Awakening and Don Wiegand's bronze Maura, according to City Lifestyle. The city has placed figurative bronzes elsewhere in its parks system too, including Harry Weber's The Coyote at Eberwein Park and Lee Leuning and Sherri Treeby's Saturday's Distractions at the Chesterfield Valley Athletic Center.
The city's relationship with public bronze art has also shown up at City Hall, where a multi-month patriotic exhibition launched in April featuring sculptures by local artist Don Wiegand alongside historical displays from Fine Art Ltd., running through September as part of programming tied to America's 250th anniversary. Central Park itself sits beside the 70-acre former Chesterfield Mall site now undergoing a multi-year redevelopment into a mixed-use downtown district, a transformation Hoodline previously reported is targeted for completed grading this fall. The park is also home to the 3,210-capacity Chesterfield Amphitheater, which anchors the city's free concert series and other community gatherings just steps from where the Chen statue will once again stand along the lake trail.
