Louise Bourgeois sculpted “The Welcoming Hands” as a way to symbolize love and kindness. The six bronze sculptures, installed in 1996, take the form of hands holding hands, a simple and common gesture. However, “The Welcoming Hands” sparked a controversy before the Museum of Jewish Heritage opened in 1997. The Battery Park City Authority, who is responsible for the sculpture, decided to move Bourgeois’s sculptural group because they were concerned some visitors to the museum would view them as dismembered body parts. To prevent this from happening, the Battery Park City Authority moved the sculptures 100 feet further away from the museum. Bourgeois was not notified of the relocation, and her assistant was upset that Bourgeois had not been alerted beforehand.
