The late Queen was so “concerned” at the spiralling costs and size of a nine-foot statue commemorating the murdered Lord Mountbatten that she intervened with ministers – saving the taxpayer some £250,000.
Officials pulled the plug on an elaborate design that would have featured the former Admiral of the Fleet at the centre of four fountains on the points of a compass rose, after she baulked at the massive upkeep costs, newly released National Archives papers show.
The bronze statue was funded by around £100,000 of public donations in a campaign driven by Margaret Thatcher, who personally chose the final location outside the Foreign Office.
Six sculptors competed for the commission, with judges choosing a design by Franta Belsky that placed a nine-foot-tall statue on top of a nine-foot-tall plinth.
‘Commuted sum’
At the time, the installation costs alone were set to reach £65,000 and Belsky was to be paid £35,000, but a “commuted sum” of around £250,000 was also needed to maintain the fountains for an indefinite period and would have landed on the taxpayer.
Peter Rumble, a senior official at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, wrote in a memo that the Queen raised the issue with his minister, Michael Heseltine.
Officially, comments made by advisers from the Royal Fine Art Commission were used to justify revisions to the winning design.
But Rumble wrote in newly released notes: “It was calculated that a commuted payment of £250,000 would have been required for future maintenance.
