'In April, after two years concealed beneath scaffolding, the BBC finally unveiled Ariel and Prospero (1931–32) (Figure 1), the once-celebrated but now deeply contested sculpture by the controversial artist Eric Gill (1882–1940). Subject to acts of vandalism in 2022 and 2023, struck with a hammer in delayed protest at the revelations, first made public in 1989, of Gill’s abhorrent abuse of his adolescent daughters, the sculpture carved in Caen stone was restored and is now encased in a black-framed glass vitrine, protected and entombed. Its new presentation is stark, visually jarring, and some might argue, appropriately unsympathetic. Yet one cannot help but think that both the controversy it has provoked, and the highly public nature of its interment are precisely what Gill would have desired. Like most abusers, he was a narcissist.'

The review is available to read here.