Malta’s Michelangelo
Recent correspondence regarding sculptor Antonio Sciortino refers to a monument by him in Kyiv, Ukraine. Kyiv’s current presence in the headlines led me to follow up this clue. I have found on the web information that Sciortino won a competition in 1913 for the design of a monument to Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko and a picture of the design on sale.
However, it is reported that the Sciortino project was overtaken by World War I and the Soviet take-over and replaced in 1939 by a monument designed by Russian sculptor Manizer that now gathers visitors and floral tributes in a park opposite Kyiv University.
Does anyone know if a monument based on Sciortino’s 1913 design was ever built elsewhere?