Prince Philip statue that looks nothing like him and cost £150,000 will be torn down
Art isn’t everyone’s subject at school – but this Prince Phillip statue is apparently so bad the council have asked for it to be torn down.
The 13ft sculpture of the late queen’s husband, known to locals as ‘The Don’, has watched over Cambridge University since 2014.
Standing outside a bland office block, the bronze bust was erected without planning permission to commemorate Philip’s 35 years as university chancellor.
It’s a rather, er, abstract art piece. Philip’s ‘head’, for example, has no features, is twisted beyond recognition and seemingly spills out onto his robes.
The reception to it was so, so bad not a single artist has ever owned up to making it.
One such artist, Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry, said it was ‘an abuse’ to suggest he was behind it.
Now the city council has issued an enforcement order asking the landowner, Unex Group, to tear the artwork down by August.
The notice says the statue has had a ‘harmful material impact’ on the local area (and people’s eyes too, we imagine).
Unless an appeal is made, the sculpture must be removed along with its foundations and plinth within four months from April 11.
Councillor Katie Thornburrow says she is glad to ‘finally’ see the back of the statue.
She wrote on her blog: ‘Nobody, apart from the wealthy property developer who commissioned it, seems to have a good word to say about it.’
She added: ‘I will be glad to see it gone, but remain angry that developers could just dump it in place and then force the council to spend officers’ time and money getting them to take it away.
‘We deserve better.’
Thornburrow said that council officials were stumped, to say the least, when The Don appeared given they refused planning permission for the statue.
The city planning committee deemed it a ‘confusing’ eyesore that doesn’t fit in with the local area.
‘The extent to which the proposed artefact provides visual and emotional delight will be different for each individual observer,’ the committee said, ‘but it is my view that it would not improve environmental quality because of the inappropriateness of its scale in this location.’
Council art officer Nadine Black even said it was ‘possibly the poorest-quality work’ ever submitted to officials.
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