A sculpture in Cambridge said to represent Prince Philip is to be pulled down after the city council branded it “possibly the poorest quality work” it had seen.
The controversial artwork is understood to have cost £150,000, and is supposed to resemble the late Duke of Edinburgh in his role as vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
The abstract 13ft bronze - named The Don - takes the form of a towering figure, in flowing black-and-gold academic robes and a mortarboard.
But a planning enforcement notice has now been issued by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (GCSP), saying the piece must be removed as it does not have planning permission.
Ten years ago, the council’s planning department refused permission for the piece to be erected outside a new office block in Hills Road.
The “Don” was never accepted and should not be here. We are now taking action to get it removed…
— Katie Thornburrow (@cllrkatie) March 21, 2024
Thanks to @GCSP_Planning
I’ve written more about it here. https://t.co/MSs8KlnYpg pic.twitter.com/uFyITnGZpx
Council officers said at the time it was “possibly the poorest quality work that has ever been submitted to the council” and that it would “compromise the quality” of the site.
“It is not site-specific and is a work already purchased and has no relationship to this site,” they said in a report. “It is too large a scale for the context of the space it will be located within and will compromise the quality of the new development and have a negative impact on the wider public realm and streetscape.”
But the piece was later put up anyway - in a prominent position further down Hills Road, nearer to the city centre and train station - reportedly without planning permission.
An enforcement notice issued by GCSP on March 5 said the sculpture was erected without planning permission, within the last four years.
It says the piece has a “harmful material impact” on the area’s appearance, and orders it must be removed by August 11, unless an appeal is made.
City councillor Katie Thornburrow welcomed the news on X, saying: “The ‘Don’ was never accepted and should not be here.”
Brian Harris responded on X that he finds the statue “hideous”, but added: “I quite like it. Conversation starter”.
Barbara Ellis wrote: “It’s hideous and the scary face terrifies my little granddaughter.”
Mystery shrouds the identity of the artist behind the piece.
The Don has previously been attributed to renowned Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry.
But Atchugarry has taken apparent umbrage at the claim, saying in 2014: “I am not the author of this sculpture, and it is an abuse that they had used my name. I wish somebody would apologise to me for this misunderstanding.”
Bill Gredley, chairman of Unex Group, the development company which is understood to have commissioned the piece, in 2014 claimed Atchugarry is behind the piece.
Mr Gredley told Varsity newspaper in 2014:”Pablo Atchugarry sculpted a model having spent a day in Cambridge researching academic clothing.
“He designed a model in marble and thereafter we had the model enlarged and cast by Bronze Age Sculpture Casting Foundry.”
Defending The Don’s appearance, a Unex Group spokesperson told MailOnline: “Mr Gredley and others consider it is a rather spectacular bronze with a difference, namely the head and shape as cast together with the bronze being coloured black to resemble the academic clothing and mortarboard.
“Mr Gredley appreciates that art is subjective and therefore has no issue with those who do not like The Don.”
Atchugarry told MailOnline: “The artwork '’The Don'’ is not of my authorship.”
A plaque under the artwork reads ‘HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Chancellor University of Cambridge 1977-2011’.
The artwork was described in 2014 council documents as “a very large sculpture, fairly abstract in nature, which takes the form of a Cambridge Don or student”.
The Unex Group, Atchugarry, and Cambridge City Council have been approached by the Standard.
