Sculptor offers a hand to town's Queen Victoria (From Echo)

Sculptor offers a hand to town's Queen Victoria

9:10pm Thursday 20th November 2008 in Southend By Mike Miners

Richard Bedini alongside the statue

A SCULPTOR who has been called “Queen Victoria’s right hand man” has restored the iconic statue in Southend.

Sculptor Richard Bedini restored the missing right hand of the statue of Queen Victoria, in Clifftown Parade, yesterday.

Mr Bedini’s business, Bedini & Sons, was commissioned by Southend Council to do the repairs after vandals targeted the landmark statue in April last year. He said: “It has taken about three weeks to sculpt the hand, which weighs about two kilos.

“The restoration has cost the council about £4,000. But, more than anything, it has been a real pleasure to work on what is a Southend landmark.”

Mr Bedini used marble from quarries in the Italian town of Carrara to make the hand, which is one and a half times larger than life.

Ken Crowe, from Southend Museum, is delighted the statue has been restored.

He said: “It is not only a landmark, but is also an important link with Southend’s past.”

The statue was presented to the town by mayor Bernard Tolhurst in 1897, the year of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.

The plight of its missing hand was highlighted by Southend artist Laura Keeble, 30, in May last year.

She placed 14 plaster hands around the base of the monument.