Besides Liberty Island, there is another island in NYC that has its own monument, Rat Island. It was recently purchased by Alex Schibli in 2011 at an auction for $176,000. Now the Goddess of Liberty has some stiff competition, Rat Island has a statue of William Tell—a folk hero of Switzerland.
In American consciousness Tell is portrayed only as playful archer to shoots an arrow at an apple seated on a person's head. However, for Switzerland, Mr. Tell is a folk hero a kin to King Arthur and Robin Hood all wrapped into one.
When the New York Post interviewed the owner of Rat Island, Alex Schibli, he was wearing a unique Swiss-American fusion flag: see video below. Schibli's flag has a lower-fly canton with 26 Swiss crosses on the field, arranged the four rows of: 6-7-6-7. The 26 Crosses represent the 26 Cantons of Switzerland.
During the interview with the New York Post in 2018, Schilbli was wearing a shirt that contained a unique US-Swiss fusion flag.
He was also making a statement that the monument on Rat Island is a 'sister statue' sight to Liberty Island. Like Yin and Yang, the Statue of Liberty represents the freedom all Americans, while the statue of William Tell represents one American's point of pride. However, NYC's Statue of William Tell is completely within NYC's official waters, unlike Liberty Island which is actually in NJ's waters.
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