statues
Resculpting the past
Rather than tearing statues down, Hew Locke believes in reworking them to highlight their place in our imperial history. Stuart Jeffries speaks to him
Stone cold revenge
The statue of the Bristol merchant Edward Colston is apparently guilty of a hate crime. Let us hope that the…
Rhodes, Columbus and the next heritage battle
On 12 October this year, Columbus Day, a statue of the Italian in Belgrave Square was vandalised by activists from…
Off colour
In the 18th century, art historians’ admiration for the beauty of white-ish ancient Greek marble statuary led people to draw…
Rhodes to redemption
Not since September 1642, when a mob of Parliamentary soldiers opened fire on the sculpture of the Virgin Mary carved…
Diana’s strange monument
The recently unveiled funerary monument of Princess Diana prompts comparison with Greek and Roman archetypes. To many, Diana was a…
Stone deaf
In the wake of a pandemic, why is the C of E obsessing about statues?
Monumental error
The misguided plan to ‘retain and explain’ statues
The truth about statues and the law
There is a proposal to change how we criminalise people who damage statues. This proposed change is set out in…
The problem with renaming London’s streets
In Taksim Square, the busy central hub of Istanbul, a large, viril monument stands. In the centre is Mustafa Kemal…
Quite contrary
Frankly, it is rather hideous — but also quite wonderful, shimmering against the weak blue of a late November sky.…
Diary
I have known Ghislaine Maxwell for more than 40 years, since she was a student at Balliol. I always liked…
Stone cold facts
Scotland’s statues attest to a history buried under sentimental nationalism
The woke war on religion
Though you wouldn’t know it from most American media outlets, the phenomenon of vandalizing and burning religious sites which is…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Just rejoice’, as Mrs Thatcher once said about something else. The government’s decision to debug our national security by getting…
Moving mountains
Donald Trump is fighting back against America’s historical revisionists
Trump takes on anti-nationalism
Even the most ardent Trumpist must admit that it has been a bad few months for the President. The COVID-19…
The neoliberal counter-revolution
America is not in the middle of a revolution — it is a reactionary putsch. About four years ago, the…
Pigeons are the solution to the statue controversy
Will nobody think of the pigeons? That thought has repeatedly occurred to me, as beloved roosts for generations of urban…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ said the plane’s banner as it circled the club’s stadium just after the teams had ‘taken…
Portrait of the week
Home Pubs in England would be allowed to reopen for table service from 4 July, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…
Empire states of mind
It is hard to find benign examples of imperialism
Do we erase Black history when we take down statues?
The Summer Of Our Discontent is in full swing and the social guillotines — at first applied to legitimate injustice…
Our collective nervous breakdown
It’s being sold by some as a glorious revolution, but what Western culture is really experiencing is a garden variety…
Teddy Roosevelt saw this mob coming
So now they have come for Teddy Roosevelt. The large bronze statue of TR on horseback, flanked by a black…
