National Park Service to Regild Statues Near Lincoln Memorial

The Trump administration will regild the four gold-plated “Arts of War” and “Arts of Peace” equestrian statues near the Lincoln Memorial.

The $5.1 million project is part of a broader effort to refurbish monuments and public spaces in Washington as preparations ramp up for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration. The statues, gifted to the United States by Italy roughly 75 years ago, were last regilded in 1971.

“We’re auramaxxing Washington, D.C. ahead of America’s 250th birthday,” the Interior Department posted on X on June 4, using Gen Z terminology meaning maximizing one’s aura or overall impression.

The effort was first reported by the news outlet NOTUS.

The National Park Service has awarded the restoration contract to The Gilders’ Studio, a Maryland-based firm that specializes in architectural gilding and the conservation of monumental painted and gilded sculptures.

The regilding project comes amid a wider campaign to renew or upgrade some of the capital’s most prominent landmarks. President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum have recently promoted renovations to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which the president said is being recoated in “American flag blue.”

That project will be completed before July 4, according to Trump.

The Reflecting Pool is “in terrible shape,” he said, noting that it had been leaking “like a sieve for many years.” The 2,028-foot-long water basin was opened to the public in 1923.

Trump said the initial plan to replace the granite in the pool with stone would have taken three years to complete and cost about $300 million, so he dismissed that idea and reached out to pool contractors who had previously worked with him.

“And I said, ‘Give me a good price.’ [They said,] ‘We can do it for maybe $1.5 million or $2 million, as opposed to $300 million,’” Trump said of his discussions with the contractors.

Much of the roughly $95 million allocated for beautification projects is being directed toward restoring historic fountains and improving park infrastructure across the city. Several projects, however, have exceeded their initial budgets.

At Meridian Hill Park, officials spent $4 million to replace grass and trees and another $11.3 million to restore the park’s cascading fountain system. The overall cost of the project surpassed original estimates by about $800,000.

Similarly, the Freedom Plaza renovation project, initially budgeted at approximately $9 million, grew by about $500,000 in April. The following month, workers installed a dozen new statues around the perimeter of the plaza in a rectangular layout that resembles a chessboard.