As for any meaningful anniversary, gift-giving will be an important part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations. Over the years, the Queen has received several priceless, unusual and quirky, but also simple and yet very personal gifts from foreign officials, various businesses and organisations and from members of the public. Those gifts attract curiosity and media scrutiny about their nature, appropriateness, the givers’ motivations, but also the Queen’s reaction and responses.
Media outlets have widely reported the gifts presented for the platinum jubilee by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev of a beautiful Karabakh horse and two horse sculptures by sculptor Faiq Hajiyev. At home, the Houses of Parliament will present the Queen with a pair of lampposts adorned with bronze sculptures of heraldic beasts of the United Kingdom worth £175,000.
