Which magician performed live on network television to make the Statue of Liberty apparently disappear and reappear?

David Copperfield (born David Seth Kotkin, September 16, 1956; Metuchen, New Jersey) is the most commercially successful magician in history. His shows have grossed over $4 billion in revenue through 2015 and he has performed on stage, television and in drama formats.

On April 8, 1983, before a live audience and without using camera tricks, David employed an illusion which apparently made the Statue of Liberty vanish. The entire effect can be viewed on YouTube by searching for “David Copperfield Statue of Liberty.”

David began practicing magic at age 10 and he was teaching the subject at New York University when he was 16. At 18, he played the lead role in the musical "The Magic Man" in Chicago, Illinois. He not only created illusions for the show, but also, he danced and sang. He chose the name Copperfield, fashioned after the Dickens character because he liked the way it sounded.

While the Statue of Liberty effect is perhaps his most famous illusion, David has designed and performed scores of other fantastic magic ideas involving levitation, sawing people in half, flying around and such.

He continues to delight audiences worldwide, and he owns and manages a chain of eleven resort islands in the Bahamas.