RELIGION

Battered bronze sphere returning to World Trade Center site

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Pedestrians pass the Koenig Sphere in Battery Park Thursday, July 21, 2016, in New York. the Port Authority's Board of Commissioners approved plans to relocate the sphere back to the World Trade Center site. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2001 file photo, Fritz Koenig's "The Sphere" outdoor sculpture that once graced the plaza at New York's World Trade Center lies in the wreckage following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The 25-ton, bronze sphere ripped open by the collapsing towers is returning to a spot overlooking the rebuilt site. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday July 21, 2016, approved plans to move the Koenig Sphere from its temporary place in Battery Park at Manhattan's southern tip. The sculpture will grace the new Liberty Park overlooking the 9/11 memorial. No date has yet been set for the move. (AP Photo/Ted Warren, Pool/File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - This May 24, 1977 file photo shows a sculpture by German artist Fritz Koening at the World Trade Center in New York. The 25-ton, bronze sphere ripped open by the collapsing towers is returning to a spot overlooking the rebuilt site. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday July 21, 2016, approved plans to move the Koenig Sphere from its temporary place in Battery Park at Manhattan's southern tip. The sculpture will grace the new Liberty Park overlooking the 9/11 memorial. No date has yet been set for the move. (AP Photo/File) (The Associated Press)

A 25-ton, bronze sphere ripped open by the collapsing World Trade Center is returning to a spot overlooking the rebuilt site.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Thursday approved plans to move the Koenig (KOO'-neeg) Sphere from its temporary place in Battery Park at Manhattan's southern tip. The sculpture will grace the new Liberty Park overlooking the 9/11 memorial. No date has yet been set for the move.

The sphere once stood between the trade center's two towers.

German artist Fritz Koening created the work commissioned by the Port Authority, which lost 84 employees. It was dedicated in Battery Park in 2002, with an eternal flame honoring the more than 2,700 people who died at the trade center a year earlier.