London luxury retailer Harrods announced Saturday that it would remove a statue of Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed erected in the scene and return it to former owner Mohamed Al-Fayed.
The bronze sculpture, entitled Innocent Victims , depicts Lady Di dancing hand in hand and eyes in the eye with Dodi, who release a bird spreading its wings. She was ordered by the father of the latter, Mohamed Al Fayed, after the death of the couple in a car accident in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Installed in the store in 2005, it remained in place after the sale of Harrods to Qatar Holding, the financial arm of the Qatari sovereign Qatar Investment Authority.
But the store's general manager, Michael Ward, felt it was time to take it off, pointing out that Diana's sons, William and Harry, had ordered their own statue in memory of their mother. This will be done by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley and is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2019 in the Kensington Palace Gardens, where Lady Di lived in London.
"We are very proud to have played our part in celebrating the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed in Harrods," Ward said in a statement.
"With the announcement of a new official commemorative statue in honor of Diana [...], we believe that the time has come to return this memorial to Mr. Al Fayed and to invite the public to pay tribute to him. in the palace, "he added.
Harrods did not specify a date for the removal of the sculpture. In 2000, the store had lost its license as a supplier of the British royal family, regularly accused by Mohamed Al-Fayed of instigating the death of the couple.
A spokesman for the Al-Fayed family told The Times newspaper that it was "thankful" that the statue had been kept in place so far. "It has enabled millions of people to pay tribute to these two remarkable people and to remember them. The time has come to bring them home, "he added.
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