FOR years it stood in one of Scotland's busiest shopping streets, a conceptual sculpture of a flying bird which bemused visitors and passers-by, and was removed from public view with little fanfare or recrimination in 2000.

Now Concept of Kentigern, a bronze sculpture which once had pride of place in Glasgow's Buchanan Street, has been rescued from a council store and is to be re-shown as part of this year's Glasgow International (GI) festival of visual art.

The bronze, which had many unkind names in its brief lifetime in the public realm, was made by artist Neil Livingstone and was installed in the street in 1977, but now the work is part of a show called Reclaimed: The Second Life of Sculpture - Artworks Resurrected, at The Briggait building, in Glasgow.

The sculpture now lies on its side in the entrance of the building for the exhibition, which is to run between April 5 and May 2, in a show which gives second life to more than 50 works of art which have been in storage or unlikely to be seen in public again.

The exhibition is the largest and most ambitious ever staged by Wasps Artists' Studios, dominating the interior of the 19th- century fish market, which is now its headquarters.

The show, curated by Michelle Emery-Barker, Martin Craig and Kate V Robertson, also features works by better-known artists such as Alex Frost, Ross Sinclair, David Shrigley, George Wyllie and Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan.

Ms Emery-Barker said: "When we first saw Concept of Kentigern it was lying on its side in a field and I thought it looked amazing.

"I think the plinth it had at the time was not doing it any favours.

"I think it is absolutely perfect for this show - it is too big to get into the building but it looks great in the doorway, this big piece of 1970s' scuplture. I know the council want to find a home for it, and this is the first time it's been seen in public since 2000."

She added: "We were talking and joked that elephants have graveyards, but we often don't know what should happen to sculpture.

"It's often created for an exhibition which is temporary, but is very durable itself. It can also be quite large, so people don't tend to buy sculpture so much and you can't simply hang it on a wall. So what should be kept on display, what should be stored and what should be broken up, melted down and recycled?"

Ross Sinclair, who has put together a series of his own paintings from the past 30 years to create a series of towers, said: "This is a really interesting idea and I think people will find it very enjoyable to look at the pieces and think about which of them are still pertinent.

"And for artists and galleries it's a big issue, deciding what to do with pieces of art that can take up a lot of space.

"I had a large area in a redundant church until a couple of years ago, when I lost it I had a big bonfire with some of it - looking back now it's interesting to think about what I do and don't regret losing."

Mr Craig added: "I think people will love revisiting these sculptures. The Concept of Kentigern will bring back a lot of memories ."

After the show ends the sculpture will go back into storage.