NEW ZEALAND’S LONDON SITE.

Shannon News, 13 April 1926, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND’S LONDON SITE.

■ $ 11 LONDON, April 9. New Zealand’s purchase of the British Medical Council’s building has revived th e controversy concerning the propriety of Epstein’s eighteen statuettes studding the facade of the first floor. Years ago, there was strong objection, on the ground tney should not come under the public gaze, but were more fit for a scientific gallery. Questions were even asked in Parliament. . ‘ It is understood New Zealand does nqt intend to interfere with the figures, which are now heavily coated with grime. [The figures mentioned are those, which in 1907, first gained prominence for Jacob Epstein. The great sculptor was born at New York of Russian-Polish parents, in 1880. After studying in Paris, he settled in England. His busts arc now almost universally recognised as masterpieces of the first quality, but storms of criticism have raged round his symbolic work. The latest controversy raged quite recently over his memorial In Kew Gardens, London, to William H. Hudson, the naturalist, and each succeeding product of his gifted hands appears to be heralded by the clamour of artistic and inartistic disputation.]