SHIFTING a sculpture by one of Scotland’s most feted artists from a historic street has been targeted in a “yarn bombing” protest.
After more than a quarter of a century, Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi’s Manuscript of Monte Cassino has been moved as part of a multi-million pound overhaul of Picardy Place, where Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859.
It symbolises the destruction caused by war and aims to convey a message of peace, hope and regeneration.
Paolozzi was moved to create it by one of the worst battles of teh Second World War, in the southern Italian town of Cassino. It was here that the bombing of the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino occurred in 1944.
However, the decision to relocate the artwork has led a mystery protester or protesters to create the yarn bombing – a protest in which knitted artworks are used to convey a message rather than traditional placards or demonstration.
The woven multi-coloured message reads: “Paolozzi made me for this site to commemorate the battle of Monte Cassino and the Scottish Italian club – please save me.”
Leith-born Paolozzi’s family hailed from Viticuso, near Cassino.
The sculpture, widely considered one of the pioneers of pop art, was moved by an HGV from outside St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral to the gardens between London Road and Hillside Crescent.
The Leith stones were also due to be taken to the gardens, while the Sherlock Holmes statue is to be looked after by firm Black Isle Bronze.
The Paolozzi sculpture, which comprise an ankle, hand and foot, were gifted to the city by Kwik Fit founder Sir Tom Farmer in the early 1990s.
It had been suggested that Hillside Crescent could be the work’s permanent home as the amount of public space outside the cathedral is proposed to be reduced under the current designs.
But Sir Tom insisted: “This is only a temporary move. These sculptures will come back here. I look forward to welcoming a new piazza outside St Mary’s Cathedral.
“I didn’t know Paolozzi terribly well, but he was in my sister’s class at school. You see it was Cardinal Gray who asked me to help out with these sculptures and I was pleased to do so.”
Paolozzi, who died in 2005, said the sculpture was the “back-cloth to my childhood”.
Picardy Place is being revamped to coincide with the demolition and replacement of the St James Shopping Centre.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here