I like your out of the box thinking for sure, the only issue I see is there really aren't figures available to accompany the famous statue you speak of; the arc is quite a outside of the box item, the only issue would be how massive it would have to be.
Funny you mention that piece as I was at a show about a year ago and a guy was there selling odds and ends from his collection and he had the very piece you mentioned and it was designed as an end table of all things with a round piece of glass to go on top of it to form a table, all he wanted for it was 30.00 and it was dead on 1/30th scale; one of my customers at the show bought it and we are building Paris around it presently, he is buying buildings from me left, right and center and is awaiting the upcoming resistance fighters.
Keep the ideas coming, great stuff..........