Rare bronze bust of Sir Winston Churchill to go under the hammer in Stansted

An extremely rare bronze bust of Sir Winston Churchill is expected to fetch up to £80,000 when it goes on sale at a Stansted auction in April.

The “monumental” head and shoulders, which stands at 34 inches high by 51 inches wide, is one of only six casts taken from the famous statue of the former prime minister that stands in Parliament Square, London.

The original 12ft high bronze of Churchill, who was voted the greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 BBC poll, was created by Ivor Roberts-Jones and was put up in 1973.

Mr Roberts-Jones, who died in 1996, said that the pose had been largely inspired by the famous photograph of a grim-faced and sorrowful Churchill inspecting the smouldering bomb wreckage of the chamber of his beloved House of Commons on the morning of May 11 1941.

The six casts were supervised in 1996 by portrait sculptor Nigel Boonham, who had been tasked with making a cast from the Churchill statue in Parliament Square by the Czech government to stand in Prague.

The bust that will go on sale was from the plaster cast of the head and shoulders made at that time.

The piece, which has an estimate of £60,000 to £80,000, will be part of the Modern British Art Sale, which will be held at Sworders Fine Art Auctioneers, Stansted, on April 12.

For more information, visit www.sworder.co.uk or call 01279 817778.