The Arts of War are bronze, fire-gilded statue groups on Lincoln Memorial Circle in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Commissioned in 1929, their completion was delayed until 1939 for budgetary reasons. The models were placed into storage, and the statues not cast until 1950. They were erected in 1951, and repaired in 1974.
TThe Art Deco statuary group consists of two separate elements, Valor and Sacrifice, which frame the entrance to Arlington Memorial Bridge.
The four statue groups were dedicated in 1951. The United States Army Band and Italian opera singer Ezio Pinza provided music at the dedication. Prime Minister of Italy, Alcide De Gasperi, offered the statues to the United States as a gift of the Italian people in gratitude for American assistance in rebuilding Italy after World War II. President Harry S. Truman accepted the statues, which were then . In his remarks following the unveiling, President Truman pledged to remove certain military, economic, and other constraints on Italy imposed by a 1947 peace treaty.
