The right-wing council running the county of Kent in southeast England has removed a key early work by the artist Antony Gormley from a public site. The piece Two Stones (1979-81)\u2014which stood outside the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone\u2014was sold back to the artist by the Reform-run Kent County Council for an undisclosed sum, according to a council spokesperson.<\/p>\n
The Green Party\u2019s Stuart Jeffery, leader of Maidstone Borough Council, told the Byline Times<\/a> that KCC removed the work \u201cquietly\u201d, adding: \u201cIt disappeared sometime last week [week beginning 6 April] and then we found it missing.\u201d<\/p>\n Kent County Council said in a statement: \u201c[The council] recognises the cultural significance of Two Stones and Gormley\u2019s connection to Maidstone, therefore the decision to sell [the work] back to the artist was taken carefully as part of KCC\u2019s ongoing work to manage the significant financial pressures facing Kent\u2026 the private sale enables the council to raise income without increasing costs for residents or reducing frontline services.\u201d The council faces a severe budget deficit and Reform has yet to deliver the tax cuts promised ahead of winning control of Kent in last spring\u2019s local elections.<\/p>\n Gormley was commissioned in 1979 by Kent County Council (KCC) and Arts Council England to create the piece while teaching at Maidstone College of Art. It was the first public commission by the artist. Gormley went onto create one of the UK’s most famous public works of art, the Angel of the North (1998) in Gateshead. <\/p>\n According to the ArtUK database, Two Stones comprises an eight-ton granite boulder from Scotland along with a replica made of bronze and concrete. The work was relocated to the Kent History and Library Centre in 2013 (it was previously sited at Singleton Lane in Ashford where it was vandalised).<\/p>\n