Federal officials awarded a $5.1 million contract without competitive bidding to gild two 19-foot statues near the Lincoln Memorial with 23.75-karat gold leaf, marking one of the few completed renovation projects ordered by President Trump ahead of the nation's 250th birthday celebration last month.
The statues, called Valor and Sacrifice, are part of The Arts of War collection sculpted by Leo Friedlander and dedicated 75 years ago as a gift from Italy for American assistance in rebuilding after World War II. Each depicts a nude man and a seminude woman atop granite pedestals ringed with 36 stars representing the states in the Union at the Civil War's end. The bronze statues were last regilded 55 years ago and had faded.
The Contract Process
The National Park Service awarded the work in April to the Gilders' Studio in Maryland, treating it as a high priority. Internal documents obtained by The New York Times described it as "a visible, high-impact example of how the N.P.S. is responding to presidential directives." Documents obtained by NOTUS revealed that extensive market research wasn't done to determine whether $5 million represented a fair price. The agency determined that only one company could meet the work's requirements and timeline. The Gilders' Studio has completed regilding projects nationwide, including the Georgia State House dome, Faneuil Hall's cupola in Boston, and the Sherman Monument in Central Park. The project had a mandatory competition date of July 1.
Two companion statues, collectively called The Arts of Peace, remain under renovation nearby. As scaffolding came down this month, Trump posted photos on social media while tourists, commuters, cyclists and runners stopped to photograph the gleaming monuments. They now stand in stark contrast to the classical and austere Lincoln Memorial.
A Pattern of Golden Preferences
Trump's affinity for gold extends throughout his Washington renovations and personal history. The Oval Office now features thick gold frames, gold vases and ice buckets, gold stars on the ceiling and gold appliqués. Trump insists these are real gold, not painted flourishes. He's taken his personally designed presidential challenge coin and affixed it to the center of the Oval Office door at eye level. The coasters are gold, the curtains are gold.
Trump last year exempted gold bullion from his reciprocal tariffs and named his special visa program for wealthy foreigners the Trump Gold Card. When FIFA President Gianni Infantino awarded Trump the first FIFA Peace Prize, it was a golden orb of a trophy. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook presented Trump with a 24-karat-gold base to hold a glass sculpture. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year gave him a golden pager to commemorate an operation in which Hezbollah members were killed when their pagers detonated. Trump said during a Cabinet meeting 5 months ago, "See, I'm a gold person."
Trump's preference for gold and marble stretches back decades. Ivana Trump, his first wife and the Trump Organization's vice president of interior design, encouraged his gold obsession, according to Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. Ivana's love of the color lasted; she was buried in a gold casket. In the 1980s, Trump bought Mar-a-Lago and put $7 million worth of gold leaf on the walls, plus gold-plated sinks near the ballroom. He hired designer Henry Conversano, known for golden flourishes in the Golden Nugget casinos, to remodel his Trump Tower penthouse apartment and work at his Atlantic City casino. Thirty-eight years ago, he bought from the sultan of Brunei a yacht bathed in gold and named it the Trump Princess.
Jack O'Donnell, one of Trump's former casino executives who helped him host parties on the boat, said, "It was so gaudy. Almost shockingly gaudy. And he loved it. He thought it was the most beautiful thing out there." He speculated that Trump may have been inspired by the yacht when he remade the Lincoln Bathroom almost entirely in gold and marble. Eighteen years ago, Trump built a hotel in Las Vegas with a 406,000-square-foot facade coated in gold-infused glass. More recently, supporters erected a 22-foot statue of him at his golf course in Doral, Florida, with a gold finish.
Barbara Res, who oversaw construction for the Trump Organization and was placed in charge of building Trump Tower, said, "To him gold was the essence of richness and class." She added, "To him it meant, This is gold. This is mine. It's the best you can get, and I'm the best. That's how his mind works. I'm going to show you the best by buying the best." She said he also liked trompe l'oeil, "tricking the eye of the consumer," and that his taste reflected "his ability to spend endless money on something beautiful."
Presidential Statements and Historical Context
Trump has said, "I love the gold, but if you don't use 24 karat gold, it doesn't look good," "It just beams," and "It's all real stuff." He also said, "You can't imitate it. Someday they'll discover a paint that will look like gold, and the guy's going to be the richest man in the world." Peter York wrote in Politico Magazine in 2017 that Trump's design style is "aspirational, meant to project the wealth so many citizens can only dream of," and said, "The best aesthetic descriptor of Trump's look, I'd argue, is dictator style."
Gold has often been used to represent imperial power in 18th-century France and 19th-century Russia. On Trump's first foreign trip of his second term to the Middle East, he marveled at the gold and marble in the palaces of Doha and Abu Dhabi. He said 2 months ago ahead of a trip to the palace, "Versailles is not a gold leaf. Versailles is the real deal."
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement, "No other president has done more to beautify our Nation's interior than President Trump." He said Trump's "bold vision" was ensuring that the 250th birthday was filled with "glory and pride." The Department of Interior said, "Residents and visitors are excited to see the city revitalized to the grand destination it was meant to be."
Trump added the statues to the list of eyesores he wanted fixed before the nation's 250th birthday on July 4, and federal officials scrambled to meet his demands. The scaffolding remained up for weeks before the statues came into view. An ARTNews review called them "Fit for an oligarch's ballroom."
Why This Matters:
The $5.1 million no-bid contract raises questions about procurement practices and fiscal stewardship at a time when federal agencies face budget constraints. The decision to bypass competitive bidding and forgo extensive market research on pricing represents a departure from standard government contracting procedures designed to ensure taxpayer value. While the statues themselves are historic monuments deserving preservation, the expedited timeline and premium cost reflect priorities that emphasize visible symbolism over budgetary discipline. The project illustrates tensions between executive directives for rapid results and established processes meant to prevent waste. As federal spending remains a central concern for fiscal conservatives, the contrast between rushed, high-cost renovations and careful stewardship of public resources becomes increasingly stark.