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A metal sculpture was destroyed this summer during preparations for construction of a student residence at Lambton College in Sarnia.
Published Dec 11, 2025 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 3 minute read
Construction of a new student residence at Lambton College in Sarnia continues during Wednesday’s snowfall. Photo by Paul Morden /The ObserverArticle content
It happened again.
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A metal sculpture by Walter Yarwood, a founding member of the 1950s Painters Eleven group of Canadian abstract artists, was destroyed this summer during preparations to build a new student residence at Sarnia’s Lambton College.
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It came 20 years after another outdoor sculpture at the college was destroyed, sparking a lawsuit, but the latest incident is described as inadvertent and something college officials weren’t aware of until after it happened.
“Lambton College and Tilbury Properties Corp., the developer responsible for Lambton College’s new student residence project, regret to share that during early civil works around the site perimeter, a subcontractor working on the project irreparably damaged and inadvertently removed the Walter Yarwood sculpture Sign No. 9,” a joint statement said.
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“We acknowledge the importance this work held for the Yarwood family, Lambton College, and the broader community,” it said.
Sign No. 9, a sculpture by the late Canadian artist Walter Yarwood, is shown on the grounds at Lambton College in this photo via a Sarnia Historical Society Facebook page post in July 2019. (Handout) Handout
The damage happened Aug. 7 and the college became aware of it Aug. 12, a college spokesperson said by email.
The joint statement said the college and contractor reached out to the artist’s family after learning of the incident.
“We have been working directly with the Yarwood family to ensure we remedy this unfortunate situation in a meaningful way, and we intend to share plans . . .when they are final,” it said.
The incident came 20 years after the college dismantled Homage, a cedar sculpture by Hayden Davies the school commissioned in the 1970s. A lawsuit was settled after the artist’s death in 2008.
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Chip Yarwood, Walter Yarwood’s son, said he was “pretty shocked it was gone” after learning of the sculpture’s fate from the college and contractor this summer.
“I knew the piece needed some work,” he said. “I had seen some photos of it taken a couple of years earlier. But I didn’t think it was just going to disappear.”
Born in Toronto, Walter Yarwood studied commercial art and later became an abstract painter and Painters Eleven member in the 1950s. He later turned to sculpture and created works displayed at the University of Toronto, Winnipeg International Airport, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and at Queen’s Park in Toronto, according to A Dictionary of Canadian Artists.
His other commissions include a 1968 monument to Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s second prime minister, on Sarnia’s waterfront.
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A sculpture and historical plaque on Sarnia’s waterfront commemorates Alexander Mackenzie, Canada’s second prime minister. (File photo/The Observer) Photo by File photo /The Observer
The sculpture at Lambton College was “a bit of a rare piece in that style, even for my father,” Yarwood said. “It’s different than a lot of his bronze and cast work.”
“This was a welded, kind of angular piece” that was the largest in a series created by his father, Yarwood said.
“It’s a big loss that way,” he said. “I’m very saddened by it.”
Yarwood said he believes the college and contractor “really are sincere and want to do something.”
“This was an accident and that’s a shame,” he said.
Yarwood said he suggested finding a way to get some of his father’s other works “into the public domain.”
There are works “tucked away . . . (that could be) donated to public institutions where they could be viewed,” Yarwood said.
He plans to work with others in the “art world” to come up with a proposal for the college and contractor to consider, he said. “I think they’re receptive to the idea.”
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Seeing more of his father’s works “in the public domain,” somewhere in Canada, “would be my goal,” he said.
“We’d like some representation of something at the college, whether it’s a plaque or something,” he added.
Sign No. 9 “isn’t the first piece of my father’s work we’ve lost to development” he said. “So, it was a bit of a sting that way.”
Yarwood said he believes there should be “some sort of a social contact” with public institutions about “how they maintain these things, as just being part of Canada’s art history.”
Leonard Segall, of Sarnia’s Lawrence House Centre for the Arts, said he spoke with college president Rob Kardas about the incident.
“I’m very appreciative that they’re working with the artist’s family . . . and hoping they’re successful in bringing another of the artist’s works to public display,” Segall said.
Asked why the public wasn’t notified when the Yarwood sculpture was damaged in August, the college said it and the contractor’s “shared priority throughout this process has been to work directly with the Yarwood family towards a resolution.”
“We will be sharing more broadly when a meaningful outcome has been reached,” the college added.
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