NEW YORK — The Wall Street bull has been one lonely bovine since the end of summer.

The sculpture was corralled behind barricades when the Occupy Wall Street protest began Sept. 17, as police feared vandals might try to damage the stock market mascot.

After three-plus months of isolation, the iconic animal is going to be freed from its caging at noon Monday, said Arthur Piccolo, bull advocate and chairman of the Bowling Green Association.

Piccolo is organizing a belated birthday party for the statue, which has stood ready to roar up Broadway since Dec. 20, 1989.

There will be a ceremony honoring the sculpture and artist Arturo DiModica, who created the proud bronze beast as a Christmas gift to the Big Apple and a tribute to America’s economic rebound in the wake of the 1987 stock market crash.

DiModica won’t be attending in person. He’s visiting Italy through February but said he is pleased to learn from afar that the city is poised to liberate the bull.

"Good. I’m glad the fence is finally going away," DiModica said in a phone interview.

The birthday celebration, co-sponsored by the Bowling Green Association and the Italian-American Museum, will feature tributes to the bull, in speech and in song, followed by group photos.

"We’re going to raise Italian and American flags," says Piccolo. "I’ve invited Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg but I doubt he¹s going to come. I’m just happy that this landmark is going to be accessible to tourists again."

Piccolo has been campaigning for the bull’s release since November, when the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park were evicted. He was frustrated to witness normalcy return to Lower Manhattan everywhere except for the sliver of land where the sculpture resides at the tip of Bowling Green Park.

Rubbing the bull’s horns, and other parts of its anatomy, for good luck is a tradition among sightseers and New Yorkers alike. Vandals have targeted the statue in the past, including scrawling initials in magic marker. Each time the bull is damaged, Piccolo says, it is promptly fixed, with DiModica himself overseeing repairs.

"In 22 years, that bull has never been surrounded for an extended period of time," Piccolo says. "I still don’t know why the city was so worried about a three and a half ton piece of bronze."

A spokesman for the New York Police Department wouldn't say if there were any specific threats against the animal.

"All barricades are fluid," NYPD Detective Brian Sessa says. "They go up and come down as needed."

At one point during the Zuccotti Park occupation, two protestors dressed like rodeo clowns were arrested after they jumped the barricade to spank the bull’s behind. The only other incident, Piccolo says, was a high profile TV shoot for the late night talk show, "Conan."

A giant balloon version of the mordant puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was depicted assaulting the bull in a satirical Occupy Wall Street segment.

"I found it offensive that they used this great work of art in a simulated sex act," says Piccolo, noting the irony that the filming was conducted in a climate of heightened security.

All is forgiven, Piccolo says, as long as the fencing comes down for good to start the new year.

"I was told that the barricades might go back up for a few days after the ceremony, but they’ll be gone permanently by the end of next week," says Piccolo. "I was worried they might never come down. Hopefully, years from now, this will just be a forgotten episode."

Related coverage:

• Wall Street's 'Charging Bull' stays corralled: Police guard statue during N.Y. 'Occupy' protest

• Occupy Wall Street protesters pass through Newark on way to Washington

• Braun: Occupy Wall Street began as a message and grew into a movement