The employers of the now notorious Margaret Thatcher statue egg-thrower have condemned his actions after he hurled missiles at the Iron Lady’s monument in her home town of Grantham.
The controversial £300,000 statue of Britain’s first female Prime Minister was erected in her birth town of Grantham, Lincolnshire on Sunday, May 15 – but it didn’t take long for proceedings to be disrupted.
Details of the installation were kept coy by South Kesteven District Council in a bid to avoid threats of damage or hostility in the community, given the divisive nature of Baroness Thatcher’s reign in Downing Street.
Within hours of it being installed, the statue was targeted with eggs by a man who has now been identified and revealed as 59-year-old Jeremy Webster, the deputy director of the Attenborough Arts Centre at the University of Leicester.
His appearance was fleeting, as he arrived with a newspaper under his arm and a box of eggs. He threw four eggs at the statue – one of which hit the target – and then left.
The moment was caught on film. | Image: Twitter @DesignsBarnes
Mr Webster’s employers at the University of Leicester said they are taking the incident “extremely seriously”, though it is not clear if it will cost him his job.
His LinkedIn profile also says that he spent just over a decade working in various roles at Lincolnshire County Council, as well as previously being Head of Exhibitions at the National Centre for Craft and Design, otherwise known as the Hub, in Sleaford.
The statue of Margaret Thatcher has been installed on its plinth. | Image: RSM Photography for The Lincolnite
Kerry Law, Chief Marketing and Engagement Officer at the University of Leicester, said: “The University of Leicester has a long-standing history of supporting art, fostering creativity and protecting creative freedom.
“It does not condone any form of defacement and takes any act of defacement extremely seriously. This matter will be addressed in line with the University’s own procedures.”
The statue looms over the High Street. | Photo: Daniel Jaines
The decision to put a statue of Margaret Thatcher in Grantham has been heavily discussed for a number of years, with many suggestions that something like this would inevitably happen.
Last year, a local artist created an ‘alternative’ statue and placed it on the plinth at St. Peter’s Hill. His sculpture depicted the Iron Lady’s had stuck on a spike made from office chairs.
Mark’s own Thatcher statue depicts the Iron Lady with her head cut off and placed on a spike. | Photo: MarkRobla
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Exciting news for MyLocal app users and The Lincolnite readers! Our latest update is now available to download from your app store and comes packed with the best local news experience you can enjoy.
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