When William Fagan tipped me off that Bonhams were to auction Lawrence Holofcener’s famous bronze of Roosevelt and Churchill on a park bench my first thought was that the corner of Old and New Bond Streets would look pretty bare in future. I needn’t have worried. This is just one of the full-sized replicas made by Holofcener.
It will go under the hammer at Bonhams on November 23 and you can find full details here, just in case your cheque book is twitching in your pocket. The starting price is between £150,000 and £200,000. A similar copy sold by Bonhams in 2014 for £409,250. Come to think of it, my back garden is looking a tad bare.
I have a soft spot for this depiction of the two famous war leaders having a chit chat on the rather nondescript wooden bench. Holofcener thoughtfully left a space between the two statesmen and few tourists can resist the urge to sit ’twixt the allies and impersonate Josef Stalin at Yalta.
If you are in Bond Street with your Leica, stop by the original version of “The Allies”, which was unveiled by Princess Margaret in May 1995. Within minutes you will find a tourist squeezing between the two rather lecherous-looking leaders and you can grab a personal bit of street art, just as I did in the photograph above.
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Just about the best statue period!