A MINIATURE model of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue from Tavistock Square in central London will be auctioned in England next week, with an estimated price of between £6,000 and £8,000.
The 27-centimetre bronze maquette is believed to be the earliest complete version of the statue created by Polish sculptor Fredda Brilliant. The full statue has been installed at Tavistock Square since 1968.
The plinth of the public statue was vandalised with graffiti in September and later cleaned ahead of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
“Fredda Brilliant first conceived the idea of a sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi in 1949, but she was commissioned in the early 1960s to produce the memorial in Tavistock Square,” auction house Woolley & Wallis said.
The sculptor explored three possible poses — Gandhi standing, walking, and sitting cross-legged. The pose offered at auction is Gandhi seated, which Brilliant described as suited to the small space of the square.
Once the pose was chosen, she produced a metal miniature. This is the first of two such maquettes and will be sold next Thursday (11). The second maquette was sold in June 2019 for £65,000 to a private buyer.
“Given Fredda's growing reputation and the fierce bidding we've seen for her Gandhi works in the past, the emergence of this first maquette from a private London collection is significant,” said Victor Fauvelle, Woolley & Wallis specialist
“It offers collectors an exceptional chance to secure the piece that set one of Fredda's most internationally recognised monuments and sculptures in motion,” he said.
The full bronze statue was supported by the India League and recognises Gandhi’s time as a law student at University College London. It shows him sitting in a relaxed pose, with the plinth engraved: “Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948.”
Every year on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti is marked at the Tavistock Square monument with floral tributes and songs associated with Gandhi.
(PTI)
