King Charles the Third unveiled a new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II yesterday. The monument can be found in a niche at York Minster Cathedral in England.
The 1.1-ton, 7-foot-tall French limestone statue depicts the queen in her Order of the Garter robes and is installed above the 850-year-old building’s West Front entrance. Stonemason Richard Bossons, who worked at York Minster for 11 years and won a competition to create the statue, created it.
Bossons, a former cathedral gargoyle specialist, has never completed a portrait. A machine cut the 3-ton lump before he finished it with a chisel.
“I hope everybody likes it. It is the best I could pull out of myself. Hopefully, I have done justice to the Queen, and the King likes it, and I have done justice to the front of the building,” Bossons spoke of his work.
The statue was commissioned five years ago to commemorate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. It was completed in August, one month before her death.
“I wanted to get a sense of her longevity on the throne over 70 years,” Bossons said of his decision to portray the queen later in life.
“The late Queen was always vigilant for the welfare of her people during her life,” King Charles expressed at the unveiling, calling the statue “a tribute to a life of extraordinary service and devotion.”
The statue will eventually be visible from Queen Elizabeth Square.
