Miya Ando’s sculpture After 9/11 when it was unveiled in London’s Battersea Park in 2011. It was removed a short time later. Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian
A rusting memorial to the 9/11 attacks will be given a new home at the Olympic Park – after being shunned by council bosses who refused to host it.
The sculpture, made from steel recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Centre in New York, was a gift to the UK to honour the nearly 3,000 people – including 67 Britons – who died in the attacks.
London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, unveiled the sculpture, entitled After 9/11, in Battersea Park in south London two years ago.But it was removed a short time later and was recently spotted in a farmyard.
Johnson pledged today to find a permanent public home for the artwork.
He said: “We backed the 9/11 project when the sculpture first came to Battersea but finding a permanent home for it has proved incredibly difficult, whether it be opposition from boroughs or bureaucrats.
“Clearly this can’t continue. As a result I’ve asked my team to find a permanent home for the sculpture on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
“The park was home to a games based on tolerance, harmony and respect, and will soon be home to a massive multi-dimensional and vibrant community – the perfect riposte to those who sought to divide the world on 9/11.”
The work, made by a New York artist, Miya Ando, was commissioned by the 9/11 London Project to mark the launch of its new programme to educate schoolchildren about the attacks.
A total of 2,977 people were killed on 11 September 2011 when passenger jets hijacked by al-Qaida terrorists struck the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon in Washington DC and a field in Pennsylvania.
