The Trump administration is paying about $5 million to repair and coat four enormous bronze statues near the Lincoln Memorial in gold leaf, and it awarded the work without a competitive bid, according to National Park Service documents reviewed by NOTUS.
The statues are two pairs known as the Arts of War and the Arts of Peace, gilded equestrian figures weighing roughly 80,000 pounds. In mid-April the Park Service hired The Gilders' Studio, a Maryland firm, to restore them and apply a thick layer of 23.75-karat gold leaf. The agency did little market research to test whether $5 million was a fair price, writing that “due to the urgent nature of this requirement, market research was limited to available historical data and publicizing a special notice to SAM.gov.” The Interior Department justified the sole-source award by calling the studio “the only source capable of performing this requirement” given an “immovable deadline,” the country's 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. Several gilding experts declined to be named, citing fear of jeopardizing future work with the Park Service.
The gilding is one piece of a larger push: NOTUS found the Interior Department is spending at least $95 million in taxpayer funds on Washington “beautification” projects initiated between December 2025 and April 2026, including a multimillion-dollar reflecting-pool repainting. The spending fits a documented pattern of converting public spaces and federal symbols into gilded Trump-era set pieces (see Treasury Has Designed a $250 Bill With Trump's Face on It; Bessent Confirms, Says It's Ready for When Congress Authorizes the Denomination).