NORTH PROVIDENCE — The sculptor who made the 9/11 memorial that became the center of attention after Mayor Charles Lombardi buffed out the likenesses of two former public safety officials from the granite surface spoke out yesterday, saying that while he understands the mayor’s motivation he does not think it ethical to alter an artist’s work after it has been dedicated.

“Suppose someone didn’t like the smile on the Mona Lisa and decided to change it,” asked Anthony Longo. “I don’t think it would be ethical.”

Longo, a Lincoln resident who has been sculpting for 40 years, disputed suggestions that then-Mayor A. Ralph Mollis had conspired with him to incorporate into the monument the faces of two men who worked with the mayor — then-Fire Chief Stephen Catanzaro and Police Commissioner Frank Bursie.

The fact is, he said, that he only talked with Mollis on two occasions — the first time when he was awarded the $25,000 contract to produce a monument based on a winning design submitted by then-high school senior Ashley MacLure, and the second time at the dedication in November 2005.

“When I asked Mayor Mollis what he wanted, he said ‘go ahead and do what you think best.’ To give an artist free rein is rare, but that’s what he did. He had no input into it at all.”

Accompanied by his wife, Linda, Longo last night recounted how he simply wanted to create a “composite” image of a typical police officer and firefighter to serve as a backdrop and to represent those individuals who “do their duty” and who in small and big ways help to protect democracy.

“It didn’t matter to me whose face I used,” he said. “It was a composite, and to me any random face would do.”

But Longo said finding someone to pose turned out to be harder than he expected. “I tried to get my nephew who is a police officer in Johnston, but he wasn’t available. As time grew short I was getting desperate.”

He said he was explaining his problem to an acquaintance at a restaurant when someone said he should try getting the chief, because “he should have a fireman’s hat.”

Longo said that when he was explaining his problem to Bursie, who also serves as the town’s director of special projects, he asked him in desperation, ‘Frank, do you have a policeman’s hat? Can I use you?’ Frank said he guessed he could pose.”

In explaining his reason for removing the images of Catanzaro and Bursie from the monument, without getting permission form the sculptor or other town officials, Lombardi said Monday that many firefighters thought it was a “joke” that the former chief’s face should be on the moment and he thought a monument should honor those who have “made the supreme sacrifice,” and should not include faces of people who are living.

Longo, however, said that what he did was not unlike what Michelangelo did when he used faces of local Roman citizens to create the images in the Sistine chapel, and what other artists have done throughout the ages. “I don’t think what I did was anything different,” he said, observing that thus far no one has complained about the bronze statue of boy standing in the middle of the monument with an eagle on his shoulder. There was an actual boy who served as a model for that piece of the structure as well, but no one has any problems with that, he said.

Linda Longo said her husband was hurt by some of the criticisms of the work leveled by MacLure, the former senior, now a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, whose design took first place in a contest sponsored by the North Providence School Department. On Monday, MacLure said she intended the monument to be simple — a boy, with an eagle on his shoulder, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but “they added a lot of junk that didn’t have to be there.”

“That hurt because my husband puts his heart and soul into every work he does,” she said.

The artist said MacLure’s submission was a drawing on a single sheet of paper, and that he needed to add some elaboration to help people make the connection to 9/11.

“In retrospect I think I could have been more vigilant about the way I got people to model. I can see Mayor Lombardi’s point of view, but I still don’t think it was ethical for him to do what he did.”

Also weighing in yesterday was Marilyn Trudeau of Chepachet, whose daughter, United Airlines flight attendant Amy Nicole Jarret, died when Flight 175 became the second of two planes to slam into the World Trade Center. Trudeau, who attended the monument’s dedication two years ago, said her son Matthew, 29, attended last week’s ceremony at Evans Field.

“I was personally very happy to see the town making the effort because you see so little of this being done in Rhode Island,” she said. As for the images that Mayor Lombardi erased, Trudeau said she had been totally unaware of the controversy, but “I do think a 9/11 memorial should reflect everyone who died, and it should not have pictures of living people.”

rdujardi@projo.com