The clay sculpture for the new Wooster Square monument that eventually will replace the Christopher Columbus status that once stood in Wooster Square Park is nearly finished and ready to go to a Massachusetts foundry to be cast in bronze.

Meanwhile, fundraising has reached $320,000 toward a $400,000 goal, said Bill Iovanne Jr., co-chair of the Wooster Square Monument Committee with the late Laura Florio Luzzi, who died in September of 2022.