Four birds that were stolen from a recently-installed bronze statue in Paphos old town in January have been replaced by the artist.
Yiota Ioannidou’s ‘the girl with the sparrow’ is hugely popular with the public and sits on an open space the theft left both the local community and visitors outraged.
“This artwork belongs to the public, to everyone and people have been very supportive of their return. When we were fixing them, passersby were so happy to see them back,” Ioannidou told the Cyprus Mail on Tuesday.
The sparrows are integral to the sculpture with one of them sitting carefully in the girl’s hand, as she gently holds it. It took the artist one month to create the replacement birds, which are now firmly attached to the bronze rods on the base.
The bronze of the child and the birds sit on a marble cushion and plinth and under the branches of a recently planted olive tree.
“This is such a beautiful piece of art and I enjoy looking at the girl and her birds every day as I pass by to go to work. We need to protect and respect such things as they are for our benefit and not destroy them, it’s disgraceful,” said local worker Angela Michaelides.
The sculpture was made with the support of Paphos municipality and took the artist ten months to complete.
‘The girl with a sparrow’ is the third work by the artist to be placed in the town, ‘The Little Fisher Boy’ and ‘Sol Alter’, a homage to Aphrodite, attract hundreds of visitors every day. Another of her sculptures is found in Argaka and honours rural mothers.
Ioannidou noted that she is considering a couple of issues connected with the sculptures, the first is to install the correct lighting that shows the works off correctly, although this may be more difficult with the little fisher boy on the sea front, as waves often crash around him.
“There must be a solution of some kind,” she said.
In addition, suggestions have been made to install some sort of stepping stones across the rocks where ‘Sol Alter’ is placed help access, as a number of visitors to the art work have cut or grazed themselves whilst clambering over the rocks to get close to the piece.
“This would not be concrete or anything like that, but perhaps some carefully placed flat rocks to make it safer for the public,” she said.
Born in Paphos, Ioannidou studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, before returning to Paphos.
Ioannidou is currently working on another piece of public art, the details of which will be made available in the coming weeks.
