Mystery sculpture’s fate unclear as G building shuts down

A life-sized steel artwork has stood quietly in the G building for over a decade, watched by students, passed by lecturers, but owned by no one. With the upcoming closing of the building, the university’s art department doesn’t know what to do with this piece, and keeps looking for the artist.

“It’s a mystery where it came from or who made it”, says Luuk Bode of the art department. The sculpture, a humanoid figure made of steel wires, has been there at least as long as Luuk has, around a decade. The artwork is on the second floor, near the stairwell further down the corridor. “We’ve tried googling it, but there are quite a lot of steel-wire works out there”, explains Bode. He adds that there is no recognisable ‘handwriting to it’. He couldn’t find an artist matching this style in his research.

“I wouldn’t put it in my garden”, he adds with a laugh. “I can see it was done very skillfully, and the artist understood proportions and materials. But it doesn’t have enough character to touch me personally.”

Who’s responsible?

Technically, the art department is not responsible for maintaining this artwork as it’s not part of the University’s art collection. Still, someone seems to have taken care of it, Bode explains. Some of the limbs have been roughly repaired with flexible wire. “Look here”, he points at the sculpture’s right arm. “Someone’s tried to fix this. And there’s barely any dust on the art work. Some people on the floor may be quite fond of this steel man, they might have looked after it”, he adds with a smile.

The G building will close soon, but Bode says the art department has no idea what to do with this situation. He hopes that somebody claims it or identifies the artist before the building closes. A few years ago, he recalls, someone emailed him to ask if they could take the sculpture home. “But we can’t give away what isn’t ours.”

Lost artworks

Normally, Bode spends his time searching for art, not artists. With the university’s art-on-loan system for the staff, works sometimes go missing when people change jobs or offices. “There’s actually a ‘wanted list’  for lost pieces, he explains.

“Once, someone brought us a cheap museum poster, thinking it was part of the collection”, he recalls. He was ready to throw it out until he took it apart. “On the back of the poster, behind the frame, I found a very valuable Bridget Riley piece. It found its way back to the collection.”