Alberto Lejarraga
A STATUE of Spanish Former King Juan Carlos I holding a hunting rifle has been erected without permission in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol.
The polyurethane sculpture is 170cm (5.6ft) tall and displays the monarch pointing at the bear and arbutus monument, the symbol of Madrid.
It was erected yesterday by Chilean artist Nicolas Miranda, who has titled his work ‘Parasitic Strategies to Survive in a Cruel World’.
“I have attempted to ridiculise the figure of the monarch,” Miranda said.
The sculpture shocked a number of pedestrians at Madrid city centre this morning.
But it has now been removed and transferred to La Parceria cultural centre in Arganzuela neighbourhood, where it will be displayed at an art exhibition organised by Miranda.
The statue is a reminder of Juan Carlos’s 2012 elephant hunting trip to Botswana, where he fractured his hip.
After he was caught by the Spanish media, he said his now famous apology “I made a mistake but it will not happen again”.
Little did he know back then that he was later going to be exposed over a large hidden fortune.
The display of the statue at the heart of Spain’s capital is related to the Former King’s returning to the country for the second time since fleeing to Abu Dhabi.
Read more:
- Spain’s disgraced ex-king Juan Carlos I extends visit to country to undergo medical tests
- Former King to arrive in Spain in private jet today
- Spanish government will not remove the name of disgraced former monarch Juan Carlos I from warship
