Historic England sets out to find missing public art
Historic England is on a mission to locate publicly subsidised art that has disappeared from view. reports
The Government’s heritage watchdog is trying to find dozens of sculptures, concrete friezes and murals that have disappeared since the 1970s
From the nine-ton fibreglass bulls that adorned an unloved shopping mall to the 300ft needle that was the centrepiece of the Festival of Britain, they are works of art once seen by millions that have mysteriously disappeared from view.
The theft of sculptures and other works by metal thieves has become familiar in recent years. But along with the Henry Moores and Barbara Hepworths pillaged from parks and plazas to be sold for scrap, hundreds more pieces of art that once stood in Britain’s public spaces are simply unaccounted for.
The Government’s heritage watchdog today launches a campaign to track down dozens of sculptures, friezes and murals from a post-war golden age of publicly subsidised art that have been declared lost in recent decades.
Among the pieces that have vanished are the pineapple fountain (pictured), a spiky metal structure commissioned in 1977 by the car maker Ford for its headquarters in Basildon, Essex, and three friezes of bulls that hung on the side of Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre but disappeared from storage after being taken down during site redevelopment.
Another missing artefact is the Skylon sculpture, a 300ft, cigar-shaped structure seemingly balanced on its end at the 1951 Festival of Britain on London’s South Bank. Versions of its fate range from being melted down for souvenirs to being thrown into the River Lee.
Historic England is warning that dozens of works commissioned for hospitals, schools and housing estates by some of the most important artists of the 20th century are “disappearing before the public’s eyes”. While many are known or feared to have been destroyed as towns and cities are redeveloped, experts believe others may be lying forgotten in outhouses or storage sheds.
Duncan Wilson, the body’s chief executive, said: “Part of England’s national collection of public artworks is disappearing before our eyes. These artworks were commissioned and created for everyone to enjoy, and it should remain accessible to all. We want to raise awareness of just how vulnerable these works can be, and we want the public 1 The Pineapple – William Mitchell, 1977 Commissioned by car maker Ford, the fountain was made from steel which had been hand cut and allowed to rust. It was installed outside a Ford building in Basildon but was last seen in 2011 when it was placed in storage. It was reported missing in 2012 and would cost £500,000 to recreate today. 2 Neighbourly Encounter – Uli Nimptsch, 1961 Depicting a couple sat opposite each other as the man offers the woman a flower, the sculpture was commissioned by London County Council. It was installed on the Silverwood Estate in Southwark but then disappeared. Its fate remains unknown. 3 Bull Forms – Trewin Copplestone, 1963 Four two metre-high fibreglass bulls, each weighing nine tons, were commissioned to hang from Birmingham’s Bull Ring shopping centre. When the site was redeveloped they were put in storage, but three have since disappeared. 4 Skylon – Philip Powell, Hidalgo Moya and Felix Samuely, 1951 The centrepiece of the Festival of Britain in 1951, the 300ft beacon was commissioned to symbolise a technologically thrusting nation. It was dismantled after the exhibition and is variously believed to have been turned into souvenirs or thrown into a London river. 5 Untitled – Luise Kimme, 1972 This fibreglass sculpture, boldly painted in red and blue, spilled from the external wall of a Newcastle art gallery into flowerbeds below designed by the artist. It disappeared after it was first installed. to help us track down lost pieces.”
The post-war period up until the 1970s was a rich era for public art in England, with far-sighted county councils – in particular, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire and the now-defunct London County Council – routinely commissioning works for new buildings, from schools to retirement homes.
But whether because of a lack of appreciation of the avant-garde nature of some of the work, negligence or lack of resources to safeguard the art, experts warn that much of it is being allowed to vanish or actively removed and destroyed by its custodians.
A 1966 sculpture by the artist John Hoskin, designed for the courtyard of a library in a south London school, was dismantled in the early 1990s after the headteacher decided its steel edges were a safety risk. It is thought likely to have been destroyed.
Historic England is asking for leads on missing works ahead of a major exhibition next February at Somerset House in London on postwar public art in the hope that some may be traced and returned to display. A list of missing works can be found on the HE website.
Sarah Gaventa, curator of the exhibition, said: “For a long period, every new school or hospital was commissioned with a work of art. But people no longer feel ownership of this art or don’t understand what it is.
Some of the neglect was political, she believes: after the Festival of Britain in 1951, for example, the new Conservative government “made little effort to save the art because it was viewed as something that its Labour predecessor had commissioned”, she says.
Some of the missing works underline the belief of Fifties and Sixties planners that art should not be the preserve of the rich. These include the life-sized sculpture showing a man offering a flower to a woman, by the German artist Uli Nimptsch, which was placed on a newly built council estate in Southwark, south London, in 1961.
“I can’t believe that everything that is missing was melted down,” says Ms Gaventa. “It would be great if we could find one or two pieces.”