Chopin statue by Bronislaw Kubica

Outside one of the entrances to our Royal Festival Hall is a striking statue of the composer Fryderyk Chopin, created by Bronislaw Kubica in 1974 and unveiled the following year.

It was a gift to the British people from Poland for, according to the dedication on the plinth, ‘their sacrifice in the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945’.

In the mid-1980s, the statue was moved to protect it during renovation works at the Southbank Centre. And then, in spite of its substantial size and weight, it went missing. No one would see it again for 25 years.

Chopin may never have been found if it weren’t for the determination of Marek Stella-Sawicki, who, in his role as chairman of the Polish Heritage Society, went on a lengthy mission to track the statue down.

In 2010, Stella-Sawicki’s determination paid off. The statue was discovered in an underground storage space beneath Waterloo Bridge. After sending it to Poland for restoration, in May 2011 Chopin was unveiled for the second time at the Southbank Centre. Stella-Sawicki went on to write a play about his quest, called Rescuing Chopin.