Underground Art
I had a letter published in The Times yesterday, under this heading.
I’ve been thinking for a long time about the way large bronze sculptures and statues keep getting nicked by Philistines and criminals, who don’t care one jot about our artistic heritage. We also have the controversy over Tower Hamlet’s Henry Moore statue, that they may have to sell.
So when The Times published a piece on art on the Moscow Metro, I wrote to the paper. This is what I said.
Your report “Moscow’s Metro is transformed into a real work of art” (Nov 7) offers a solution to the problem of what to do with the Henry Moore sculpture owned by Tower Hamlets council, as well as other statues owned by local authorities.
Many of our stations have a suitable space, and given that they are pretty secure why don’t we move some artworks there? Statues would interest more people in a station than they do tucked away in a park or housing estate, as they are now.
The more I think about this, the more I think the idea could be a runner.
Tower Hamlets incidentally, has three major stations; Canary Wharf, Shoreditch High Street and Whitechapel. The latter is currently being rebuilt for Crossrail.
All it needs to find a space for the Henry Moore, is a bit of creative and artistic thinking! To site the statue in public in a station, may actually cost less in the long term, as surely insurance would not be so expensive.
The Anonymous Widower 
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