Mystery over marble bust on display at Montrose Infirmary

A double mystery surrounds a marble bust which has been on display at Montrose Infirmary for many years.

Staff at the hospital have no idea who the woman depicted in the sculpture is or who originally donated the bust.

One theory is that it is of Montrose philanthropist Susan Carnegie, who died in 1821.

However, Gail Smith, of Angus Health and Social Care Partnership, said that when the bust was examined by local experts, the identity could not be confirmed.

She said: “We arranged to have the bust examined and valued by Taylors Auction Rooms in Montrose and they have advised that they can not confirm that the bust is of Susan Carnegie.

“The subject is a young woman but we don’t know her identity.

“The bust was made around 1890 by an Italian sculptor called Arce Pisane, probably in Florence.

“I have been trying to find out who originally donated the bust to the infirmary many years ago but nobody seems to have any record of it.

“We are now going to speak to local museums to see if they would like to display the bust as it is a beautiful piece of art and it would be lovely for the people of Angus to be able to enjoy it.”

Anyone that can help solve the mystery of the bust’s identity is asked to send an email to communications.tayside@nhs.net

“White bread has got a lot of carbohydrates in it but very little vitamins. Bread is quite filling anyway and when it gets full of water, they ingest it and think they’ve eaten something quite good.

“Normally they eat grass and vegetation but they have to eat a lot of that to be full.

“But when they have the bread, they think they have a full stomach but have very little nutrition. So when they’re young, they start to develop problems with their bones.

“The condition that Jocky has is called angel wing, where the bone when he was young, because of the lack of vitamins, hasn’t formed properly and twists out of position.

“Unfortunately, it means he can’t fly which is the one thing that birds are meant to do and by giving them bread, it’s actually taking away their freedom.”

Mr Strachan said Jocky, who has failed to mate for several years, is bloated as a result of his diet and would dwarf other wild male mute swans.

He added the problem of people feeding white bread to wild birds is an issue across several nature reserves.

He said: “We’ve got some horrendous cases at Birnie Loch of birds that just can’t fly because they’re overfed bread. They’re looking pretty sad – especially the mallards.

“Jocky manages to get around and he is quite long-lived but my suspicion is it’s actually because he’s essentially been hand-reared by people feeding him, which he’s now used to.

“If people can make a simple change to brown bread or seeds or frozen peas, it’ll make such a difference.”

The mysterious bust at Montrose Infirmary.