Making the Statue of Liberty appear to disappear on live television is one of David Copperfield's most remembered tricks. The illusion was a creation of Jim Steinmeyer ^*, and it is still unpublished.

In the book Bigger Secrets, William Poundstone published his guesses and detailed a plausible-sounding theory for how Steinmeyer's illusion was accomplished. Poundstone suggests that the entire stage and seating area for the audience was atop a rotating platform. Once the curtains were closed, blocking the view, the platform was rotated—slowly enough to be imperceptible. When the curtains opened again, the audience was facing out to sea rather than toward the statue. Poundstone further elaborates that, once the stage rotated, the statue itself was mostly concealed behind a brightly-lit curtain tower. To further misdirect attention, there were two rings of lights: one, initially lit, around the statue, and another (dark and invisible at first) in the area the audience would end up facing. When the trick "happened", the statue's lights were doused and the others turned on. The radar blip highlighted in the television presentation was simply an animation.

Some claim that this explanation is unsatisfactory, maintaining that one end of the statue's pedestal base was visible to the live audience at all times. Furthermore, the size of the suggested platform would have to be quite large to support the curtain towers and guidewires as well as be moved in some silent fashion to not arouse suspicion in the live audience. This explanation also does not address the photographs that were taken from three different angles around the statue itself during the commencement of the illusion.

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