The stonemason who sculpted a statue of the Queen for the entrance to York Minster said it was his first portrait piece. In front of hundreds of people outside the 850-year-old cathedral, the King unveiled the first statue of his mother since her death in September.
Weighing 1.1 tonnes and made from French limestone, it shows the Queen in the robes of the Order of the Garter. Richard Bossons, 52, who has worked at the minster for 11 years, won a competition to create the statue, which stands above the West Front entrance.
It was intended to celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee and was completed in August, the month before she died. He said: “I hope everybody likes it. It is the best I could pull out of myself. Hopefully I have done justice to the Queen and the King likes it and I have done justice to the front of the building.”
