PHILADELPHIA — Can we speak frankly? New York really didn’t deserve Diana.

To be sure, when she was young, brilliantly gilded and fresh from the workshop of Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1893, Diana was the toast of the town.

Even moralists could not make too much of her nudity, since her lithe contours were barely discernible, except in silhouette. She did her hunting from the pinnacle of Madison Square Garden — the one on Madison Square, the one designed by Stanford White, who perished under Diana’s gaze in 1906, shot to death by the jealous Harry K. Thaw.

The Statue of Liberty envied Diana the perch from which she could watch horse shows, cat shows, sportsmen’s shows, pageants, banquets and balls. Or so O. Henry wrote in “The Lady Higher Up.” The two would exchange gossip of a quiet summer night, when they could hear each other’s voices over the great distance.

“Ye have the best job for a statue in the whole town, Miss Diana,” Mrs. Liberty said, in an unexpected Irish brogue.