Hirst's Charity Girl

I see Moneybags Hirst has got his statue Charity (2003) out of storage. It was last erected outside London's White Cube gallery. Not surprisingly, nobody bought it. Yesterday it was hoisted upon a reinforced balcony at the front of the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol. Dunno what they want with the 22ft (6.7m) monster, which weighs 3.5 tonnes. It's typical Moneybags, taking somebody else's idea and writing it large to make an impact. In case you're too young to remember, this was a charity collection box used by the then Spastics Society to persuade people to part with spare change when they emerged from a shop. Back in the 1960s and 70s it was not unusual to see children hobbling about in callipers. CLICK for a slide show of the installation.