3. Margaret Thatcher Statue Decapitated
Margaret Thatcher’s statue was commissioned in 1998 by the Speaker’s Advisory Committee and was unveiled by the lady herself. The £150,000, eight-foot-tall sculpture was attacked in 2002, shortly after it was installed at the Guildhall, a vandal named Paul Kelleher burst into the gallery with a cricket bat down his trousers, and proceeded to knock the statue for six. Not satisfied with the outcome, the theatre producer then battered the sculpture with a metal rope stanchion, knocking its proverbial block off. The vandal, finally satisfied, then waited quietly for police to arrest him, stating of the sculpture upon his capture by Police: “I think it looks better like that.” Later during his trial, Kelleher said that his attack on the artwork was a form of “artistic expression” – which seems to be the standard fall-back defence for anyone punching paintings, or inking sheep – and that he did it to exercise his “right to interact with this broken world.” In 2003, the artistic vandal was sentenced to three months in prison. The statue is now hidden away in a corner of the gallery in case anyone else feels like leaning to the left with a sledgehammer. The repositioning of the work may make room for an orderly queue.