UK Muslims angry at plan to bring back historic statue of wild pig

The Boar War ; Muslims angry at plan to bring back historic statue of wild pig Source: Mail on Sunday; London (UK) Publication date: 2004-03-21 Arrival time: 2004-03-22

FOR more than 100 years it stood proudly as the centrepiece of England's oldest public park before being decapitated during a Second World War air raid. Now a row has broken out after plans to replace Derby's historic Florentine Boar statue were abandoned for fear of offending Muslims, whose religion considers pigs to be 'unclean'.

A replica of the statue, a crouching wild boar, was intended as the jewel in the crown of a Pounds 5 million National Lottery- funded restoration of the city's Arboretum Park.

But councillors have called for the proposal to be scrapped amid sinister warnings that the statue would be vandalised or stolen.

The Florentine Boar statue stood from 1840 until 1942 when it was beheaded by a German bomb. But it was last week branded 'offensive' during a meeting of Derby Council's minority ethnic communities advisory committee.

Councillor Suman Gupta, a Labour representative for Derby's Derwent ward, told the meeting: 'If the statue is put back in the Arboretum, I have been told it will not be there the next day, or at least it won't be in the same condition.

'We should not have the boar because it is offensive to some of the groups in the area.' The park is in an area known for its large Pakistani community.

Shokat Lal, a community leader, said at the meeting: 'In Normanton the majority of residents are Pakistani Muslims.

'I'm not saying we have to lose the boar, but we could put the boar in the city centre so it does not cause offence to people.' Local historian Christopher Harris told The Mail on Sunday: 'We are living in a multicultural society and I hope that would include English culture.

'If the boar had never been destroyed in 1941, these people would have grown up with it and would not have noticed it.

'Activists have jumped on the chance to make a statement. It is one that damns English culture-But the wild boar is part of Derby's culture.' He said a small minority of Muslims with extreme political views had issued veiled threats to the council over the statue.

The land for the park was donated to the council in September 1840 by Joseph Strutt, the first mayor of the Borough of Derby, a wealthy cotton mill owner who wanted to give the public a place to exercise.

He commissioned architect J.C. Loudon to landscape the area. The hollow ceramic boar was donated by Mr Strutt.

Sculpted on commission by W. J. Coffee - and based on drawings of a similar statue in the Market Nuovo in Florence - it was intended as a gift to the working classes of Derby.

Last week's committee meeting proposed that a statue of Mr Loudon should be erected at the Arboretum with a new site for the boar in the city centre.

Tory leader Philip Hickson said: 'The community is strong enough to stand a statue of a boar in a park. But we live in an age where sometimes things are a little more politically correct than they ought to be.'

This sculpture is the most significant of all the Arboretum's sculptures, frequently described in the local press as "One of Derby's best loved works of art" and is fondly remembered by thousands of Derbeians who are eagerly awaiting its promised return.

It was placed in the Arboretum as a personal gift from Joseph Strutt, as part of his desire to offer instruction (educate) to the public.

The statue was a hollow earthenware copy of the original bronze boar fountain, (Cinghiale) which sits on the edge of the Marketo Nuovo (New Market) in Florence.

Joseph Strutt, a patron of the arts with a particular interest in Renaissance Art, opened up his own house to show his collection of Renaissance paintings and sculpture - long before Derby had an art gallery and museum.

He had commissioned W. J. Coffee to make the boar statue, based upon drawings of the original, for his garden at Thorntree House, which stood at the lower end of St. Peter's Street in 1806. Loudon had also sketched the the original statue at the Marketo Nuovo in Florence, during his time in Europe, and included it in his plan.

Derby was a pioneer in a trend that has spanned the last 163 (+) years as there are now hundreds of copies of this statue around the world, with almost every major city in the western world having a copy. Derby's copy was almost certainly the first example, despite claims by some other Western countries, to be copied outside the main European Continent.

Deeply rooted in our Heritage and culture

The Boar Statue has become very much a part of the Arboretum's cultural history, heritage and folklore.

According to old Derby folklore, when the Midland Railway Bull sounded, the Boar would leave its plinth and go for a drink at the fountain.

Nannies used to warn their young charges that if they misbehaved in the Arboretum the Boar would get them.

Children would often give the Boar a wide berth as they crept by very quietly so as not to disturb him.

The Boar was admired and enjoyed by generations of Derby families, often the centre of attention for whole family groups visiting the Arboretum. It was said that there can be no Arboretum without the Florentine Boar, and its return is eagerly awaited by many of Derby's citizens.

The Boar experienced long term weather damage (Read about the "Pig" Newspaper article from 1890). By the late 1920s it was in a pretty sorry state, in 1934, with the help of public subscriptions, it underwent a complete refurbishment. According to a reader's letter to the Derby Evening Telegraph, August 1934 "it has now been restored to its former dignity".

When a German bomb destroyed the Bandstand during January 1941, a piece of the Bandstand hit the Boar, knocking off its head as shown in the photo above.

The remains of the Boar were removed and pieces of it have turned up in unusual places, (the head apparently turned up at Royce's Allotments) but appear to have vanished again without trace.

The plinth was itself removed after it was severely damaged following a series of attacks by vandals using stolen cars.

Some evidence of a cement-like material is visible around the edges of the hollow, (photo below) this may be evidence of past repair work, possibly the re-attachment of the head when the Boar was restored in 1934 with money raised by public subscription. Note also that the missing left hind leg had been replaced by 1941, compare with top photo and 1890 news article.

We were promised that the Boar is to be reinstated as part of the refurbishment plan and will be sited at its original location.

It has been proposed that the Boar should be replaced, and this proposal has been widely welcomed by the majority of Derby's citizens, (through the local press) many of whom have family memories of the Arboretum and can relate to to the photos of family groups admiring the animal. It has even been said that there can be no Arboretum without the Boar.

No indication of the material from which it would be manufactured has been given, but this may not be of great importance as Strutt's gift was a copy of the original, and it was his interest in educating the public that resulted in its relocation at the Arboretum.

This copy of the original bronze would fulfill Strutt and Loudon's wishes by the fact that it is a copy of the same sculpture copied by W. J. Coffee. This replacement would probably look very much like the composite photo above.

Above all else we in Derby are privileged to have such a place as the Arboretum.

However we also have the huge responsibility of honouring the wishes of Joseph Strutt and to maintain our respect for the world heritage status of the Arboretum, including its statuary, buildings and trees.

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