03/10/2008 00:37:00
A 50kg, £1.5 million gold statue of English model Kate Moss has been unveiled at the British Museum in London.
The statue, entitled 'Siren', is by artist Marc Quinn and is said to be the largest gold statue created since Ancient Egyptian times. Moss, from Croyden, London, is depicted in an advanced yoga pose.
The gold statue joins a series of contemporary sculptures in the exhibition, called Statuephilia, with the works intermingling amid pieces from the museum's permanent collections.
Described by the British Museum as an "Aphrodite of our times", Moss' statue sits alongside sculptures of famous Greek beauties in the Museum's Nereid Gallery. Other artists in the exhibition include Bristol born Damien Hirst, whose work features 200 plastic skulls, and Antony Gormley, of Kent, whose piece - Case for an Angel - will fill the entire front all of the museum.
Quinn is renowned for his statue of pregnant Alison Lapper, which was on display in Trafalgar Square for twenty months.
Of his latest work depicting Kate Moss, he told BBC News: "I thought the next thing to do would be to make a sculpture of the person who's the ideal beauty of the moment.
"But even Kate Moss doesn't live up to the image."
The British Museum hopes works from the Statuephilia exhibit will remind visitors of its diverse collection.
The museum's modern collections co-ordinator, Philip Attwood, told the news spokesperson: "Perhaps because the British Museum is often celebrated as a museum of antiquities, it is not always realised that its collections also include a broad range of contemporary works from around the world."
Statuephilia: Contemporary Sculptors at the British Museum is open to the public from October 4 until January 25.
