According to a March 27 report by the New York Post, a 13-foot (about 3.9 meters) tall statue of Prince Philip in Cambridge, England, was recently ordered to be demolished, and for the past decade, the "faceless" statue wearing a degree cap and a university robe has been standing.
Prince Philip, husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II, died in 2021 at the age of 99, and to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh's tenure as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the Unex Group dedicated the bronze statue to him.
However, for some reason, the "old man" statue was designed as a "faceless" shape, and it was also criticized. City Councilman Katie Thornburrow pointed out that the statue had already had a negative impact on the local area, and that people were annoyed when they saw it, and no one said anything good about it.
According to The Times in London, citizens said the £150,000 statue was "vulgar", others said it looked like an "elephant's trunk", others said it looked like a "dementor", some even accused it of being "garbage disguised as public art", and even London's public art manager slammed it as "probably the worst quality work ever submitted to the city council".
Apparently, the statue had severely affected the local landscape, and it had been erected without the approval of the authorities, and the Cambridge City Council ruled that the Unex Group had until this autumn to remove the statue.
But Bill Gredley, the 91-year-old chairman of Unex, said he didn't need a permit to build sculptures on his company's land.
In 2014, Greidley told the British Times that he contacted Pablo Atchugarry, a well-known Uruguayan sculptor, and commissioned him to create the piece.
"We couldn't find a piece of marble big enough, so he designed a model, or a draft of an unfinished sculpture," Gradley recalled, "and then we decided to cast it in bronze and ended up doing the same." ”
The businessman also revealed that he paid "Bronze Age London" to make the sculpture and then placed it on his own company's land, with a plaque below the statue that reads, "His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1977-2011".
But shortly after the statue of the "old man" was shown to the world, Achugari denied responsibility for the incident, according to The Tab. According to The Guardian, Achugari claimed at the time, "I am not the author of this sculpture and they are using my name without permission." "I hope someone will apologize to me for this misunderstanding. ”
However, Gradley insisted that it was the work of Achugari and that he was paid accordingly. At the same time, the entrepreneur also acknowledged the controversial nature of the work in an interview with the British Times, explaining, "Some people don't like it, I can understand it, but there are also many people who like it." "Anyway, we did it. ”
In addition, Gradley also said he would respect the city council's decision to remove the statue, adding, "We'll take it away, but we'll put it somewhere else so that it can be appreciated." ”
图源:Nypost,Bing