A statue depicting the severed head of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on a pike has been displayed in the town centre of her childhood home by a left-wing Welsh artist.
Mark Robla, a 34-year-old sculptor from Grantham in Lincolnshire installed the decapitated Thatcher on the plinth which will be the resting place of the official bronze statue of the Iron Lady, a £400K project which has been delayed because of the Chinese coronavirus.
Speaking to the local paper The Grantham Journal, Mr Robla said: “I saved the council £400k and displayed my new piece.
“I paid about £5 for the chair and took it apart. There were two metal poles inside which I made into a pike and the base of the chair helps balance the sculpture. It took about four months to complete and with materials, it cost about £100 in total.”
“It depicts Margret Thatcher’s head stuck onto a pike made from an office chair, standing at 5ft 3in on the 10ft plinth while still clasping her iconic handbag at the base, all carved completely from plaster,” he said.
The artist claimed that dislike of the Thatcher came as a result of being Welsh, saying: “Mines closed down and she was never a positive figure.”
Robla said that he did not feel that placing his depiction of Thatcher on public property broke any law, explaining that he has “done this sort of thing before”.
“I was there at 4 am in a hi-vis vest. I did not break in or damage the plinth,” he said, adding: “Location of a sculpture is one of the most important things and my sculpture would not have the same impact unless it was placed on the same plinth where the bronze statue will be placed.”
Baroness Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979, serving in the role until 1990. Closely paired with her counterpart in the United States, Ronald Reagan, she was dubbed the ‘Iron Lady’ by the Soviet Union for her strident anti-communist stance and tough leadership style.
Thatcher led the country to victory during the Falklands War in 1982 and successfully brought down inflation after years of economic devastation caused by the crippling socialist policies of the Labour Party in the 1970s. Following her death in 2013, Thatcher remains one of Britain’s most revered — and controversial — politicians.
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