Rare Charles Dickens statue restored to Sydney park after 40 years missing
One of only two statues of Charles Dickens in the world has been returned to public display in Australia after being lost for almost 40 years only to be discovered in a garden outside Sydney.
The marble statue, which depicts a pensive Dickens holding a quill and a scroll of paper, went missing in 1972 after it was removed from Centennial Park in Sydney because of vandalism.
The only other known statue of Dickens is in Philadelphia, USA as the author stated in his will that he did not want any public monuments or memorials to him.
The Australian statue was commissioned in the 1880s by Sir Henry Parkes, who was premier of New South Wales at the time and a great fan of the novelist.
After losing its head somewhere in transit, the statue was placed into storage, but when the storage company went bankrupt in the years that followed it disappeared.
As time passed, the statue was slowly forgotten, until Sandra Faulkner, president of the New South Wales Charles Dickens Society, came across a reference to it in a book in 2006....
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The marble statue, which depicts a pensive Dickens holding a quill and a scroll of paper, went missing in 1972 after it was removed from Centennial Park in Sydney because of vandalism.
The only other known statue of Dickens is in Philadelphia, USA as the author stated in his will that he did not want any public monuments or memorials to him.
The Australian statue was commissioned in the 1880s by Sir Henry Parkes, who was premier of New South Wales at the time and a great fan of the novelist.
After losing its head somewhere in transit, the statue was placed into storage, but when the storage company went bankrupt in the years that followed it disappeared.
As time passed, the statue was slowly forgotten, until Sandra Faulkner, president of the New South Wales Charles Dickens Society, came across a reference to it in a book in 2006....