A 200-year-old valuable marble statue could be sold off by Lichfield District Council after it failed to find the sculpture a permanent home despite widespread appeals.
The Old Father Time statue, which stands 8ft tall, is reputed to be worth more than £250,000 but the council will put it up for auction after struggling to find somewhere to put it. It is now languishing in storage, in pieces, at a cost to taxpayers of £800 a month, or more than £11,000 a year. It has been display at Alrewas’ National Memorial Arboretum.
The statue, which was sculpted by the Italian Donato Barcaglia, who called it Donna Che Trattiene il Tempo, was also on display at the city’s register office until 1999.
The statue depicts an angel holding back time and it was donated to the people of Lichfield by Colonel Swinfen-Broun, the former owner of Swinfen Hall, in the 1940s.
Last year the council held a public meeting in an attempt to find a publicly accessible home for the monument. The council has consulted widely with venues and establishments across the district, as well as with regional museums but these enquiries have all proved unsuccessful.
The statue needs a large supervised display area and a controlled atmosphere.
The council has said the statue costs the taxpayer over £800 a month to store and insure, yet it is not on public display and therefore is of no benefit to the community.
There is little likelihood this situation will change and so the statue, if left in its current state, will cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds every year.
A marble expert has apparently suggested the statue could degrade and lose value over time if left in its current state.
Lichfield District Council’s Cabinet is due to consider selling the statue at auction with money reinvested in other public art.
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