Bronze bird song sculptures part of £1m art trail stolen from outside Wakefield Council headquarters

Thieves removed five pieces of artwork from plinths outside the Wakefield One building overnight on Thursday.

The local authority confirmed West Yorkshire Police has been informed.

Councillor Hannah Appleyard, the council’s cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport, said: “The damage caused to this wonderful sculpture is just senseless.

“It’s very frustrating and sad that someone has wilfully destroyed something like this.

“We have reported the incident to the Police and are sharing CCTV. I would urge anyone with information to please contact them.”

The sculptures, titled The Auguries: Last Call, are by British artist Andy Holden and were installed in 2023.

In 2022, Wakefield Council was awarded £1m of government funding to deliver a permanent public art trail in the city centre.

Holden’s work represents the songs of native birds with rapidly declining populations, including the mistle thrush, skylark and swift.

Recordings of the bird songs were tuned into 3D waveforms and then cast in metal.

A QR code was incorporated in each sculpture so people could listen to each bird’s song.

Describing his creation last year, Holden said: “These sculptures will be melancholy, a time capsule of songs that might soon disappear without due care and never be heard again.

“They should act as totems to remind us how fragile our ever-changing relationship with nature is.

“The birds’ songs memorialised as sculptures are songs that few human ears can now hear, but by reading the shape of the sculpture form we can reconstruct the sound in our mind.

“Wakefield was the home of the world’s first recognised nature reserve, created by Charles Waterton at Walton Hall, making Wakefield an apt home for my artwork.”

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) funded the sculpture trail with the purpose of animating outdoor spaces with work by contemporary artists.

Anyone who has any information about the offence is encouraged to contact the Police online via Live Chat or calling 101, quoting crime reference 13240649472.