Enduring ‘Sphere’ Sculpture Returns to Ground Zero

A ceremony on Wednesday marked the return to New York’s World Trade Center of “Sphere for Plaza Fountain,” the only piece of public artwork to survive the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack. The ceremony, held by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, celebrated the return of the 25-foot-tall copper globe, which initially symbolized world peace as it sat between the two towers. “They are a big, humongous government authority, but they showed a lot of humanity here in what they have done, and they deserve credit for that,” said 60-year-old Michael Burke, who championed the return of the piece and whose firefighter brother died in the attack.