Taylor Randall said people have asked him why the University of Utah, where he’s the president, just spent millions on a sculpture when the school is working under a tight budget.
At a formal ceremony Saturday at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts to welcome the “LOVE” sculpture designed by the late artist Robert Indiana, Randall told donors and other attendees that universities exist not only to inspire students’ intellect, but also “to teach about emotion.”
“It is the role of this institution to create positive change,” he said. “So we have a statue that screams love in the midst of often chaos, competition and argument.”
The U. announced last October that it had purchased the sculpture for $4.5 million. To meet that price, donors put up $2.5 million, and another $2 million came from Utah’s public art funding.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah President Taylor Randall speaks at a celebration of the installation of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
The sculpture’s design was first created by Indiana for a holiday card in 1965, according to UMFA director Gretchen Dietrich, when the artist, she said, “was thinking about the very, very big, complex ideas of love — and love is complicated.”
“Love is full of every human emotion that there is,” Dietrich said. “I think now, just as many times before, we need more love in this world, and I absolutely hope that this will be an emblem for that in our city.”
According to Dietrich, the “LOVE” sculpture that now sits on the U.’s campus is one of 86 such statutes placed around the world. Only eight others match the size of UMFA’s — 12 feet tall, 12 feet wide and 6 feet thick.
The statue, she said, was displayed in New York City for more than 20 years before its journey to Utah began in December 2023, when she had lunch with Jonathan Freedman — a former advisory member for UMFA — and he told her it was for sale.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People pose for a photo during a celebration of the installation of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
“The acquisition of this amazing artwork has come to fruition thanks in large part to this man’s tenacity,” Dietrich said of Freedman.
Freedman said he worked with Lindsay Griffith of New York City’s Christie’s auction house to acquire the “LOVE” sculpture for UMFA after she told him The Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative was interested in selling the art.
“This is the best part of what we do,” said Griffith, who came to Salt Lake City for the celebration. “Bringing iconic works to universities and museums and cities like this.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People gather for a celebration of the installation of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026.
Freedman said he hopes the statue can serve as a unifying declaration amidst turbulent times.
“Robert Indiana always said that he considered love a one-word poem,” he said. “There’s no more important time … than now to have a big and bold statement staked in Utah that says we believe in love, we believe in coming together, we believe in solving problems.”
