The Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge has launched a fund-raising initiative to provide money for restoration of a rare life-size statue by artist Clara Quien,depicting Mahatma Gandhi sitting at his spinning wheel. Quien was the only artist for whom Gandhi offered to sit for a life-size sculpture. The statue shows Gandhi in characteristic pose at his spinning wheel,an iconic image which defines not only a political movement,but also an age. Quien died in obscurity in Switzerland in 1987 and later many of her sculptures of Jawaharlal Nehru,Indira Gandhi,Lord Mountbatten,and the unique statue of Gandhi fell into disrepair. The Quien family has now recovered the statues and decided to donate the statue depicting Gandhi at the spinning wheel to the Centre of South Asian Studies. After restoration,the statue is to be placed for public view in the sylvan gardens of Wolfson College,Cambridge. To help raise funds for the restoration,the Quien family has authorised a limited-edition cast of the head of the Gandhi statue to be sold at 14,000 pounds each. Only 35 copies of the statue will be made,and will be available for sale until 28 February. The head of the Gandhi statue will be in bronze and will be placed on a marble plinth.
