Britain’s 9/11 Memorial Finally Leaves Storage

A sculpture made with material sourced from the wreckage of New York’s Twin Towers is to be permanently displayed in London’s Olympic Park, the Art Newspaper reports.

According to the New York Daily News, the 28-foot structure by American artist Miya Ando, entitled After 9/11 (2011), was given to the United Kingdom as a public memorial to honor the 67 British citizens who died in the attacks.

In 2011, Mayor of London Boris Johnson unveiled the statue at a lavish ceremony in Battersea Park. However, according to The Telegraph, a New York judge had to give the green light for the release of the metal, which could be used as court evidence in cases relating to the September 11 terrorist attack.

Since then bureaucratic red tape has resulted in the statue being stored first in a Cambridgeshire farm, then in a warehouse in North London, much to the dismay of the victims’ families—and of the artist. In 2013, Ando told New York Daily News: “In my mind this was something that was meant to honor the victims and the families. It’s really unfortunate that the sculpture has been stored.”

Although the administrative wrangling now seems to have ended, patience is still required. A spokesperson for Ando’s dealer, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, told the Art Newspaper that “the actual installation and the ceremony will be taking place in spring of 2015.”