Commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 1967 to mark Centennial celebrations. The piece was created over two years and cast in 20 sections. In April of the next year, it was installed in the lobby of the Bank of Canada building, Hornby and Hastings streets, in Vancouver, B.C.
The building was sold in 1997 to Canacemal Investment Inc., out of Hong Kong. Regrettably the Bank of Canada did not give consideration to the public sculpture it had commissioned, so it mistakenly went along with the sale. The new owners did not want the sculpture, as they planned to clad the lobby with marble from China.
A series of negotiations took place over 1998 - 99, between the family, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and Canacemal. Arrangements were put in place for Canacemal to donate the mural to the AGGV. The family undertook to pay for the dismantling and shipping, and an architect and engineer were retained on stand-by.
Then, inexplicably, over one weekend in May,1999, without warning, the sculpture was boarded over with plywood. The marble came later. No phone call or message was ever returned, and until recently, the fate of the bronze was unknown. The concern was that it might have been stolen for the metal.
Fifteen years later, in 2014, someone having checked this website, an email was received from Canacemal. Assurance was given that the sculpture was “intact, undisturbed, and well-protected”, and that the company would be willing to review the feasibility of re-locating the artwork at a future renovation of the lobby.
A clay maquette of the mural exists.
H: 11.25" x W: 13.5" x D: 2.5"
It was unusual for Mayhew to work from a model or maquette, but in this case, a model was probably required for the commission.
