London - A sculptor who produced the image
of Queen Elizabeth used on Britain's coins has been chosen to
create a new statue of Princess Diana, the office of Princes
William and Harry said on Sunday, to commemorate 20 years since
her death.
Ian Rank-Broadley, whose effigy of the Queen has appeared on
all UK and Commonwealth coinage since 1998, will design the
statue, which now will not be unveiled until next year.
"Ian is an extremely gifted sculptor and we know that he
will create a fitting and lasting tribute to our mother," Prince
William and his younger brother Harry said in a statement.
In January, the brothers commissioned a statue in honour of
their mother, who died in a Paris car crash 20 years ago to be
erected outside their official London home Kensington Palace.
Diana, the first wife of the heir-to-the-throne Prince
Charles, was killed when the limousine carrying her and her
lover Dodi al-Fayed crashed in a Paris tunnel in August 1997.
William was 15 and Harry was 12 at the time.
"We have been touched by the kind words and memories so many
people have shared about our mother over these past few months,"
the brothers said. "It is clear the significance of her work is
still felt by many in the UK and across the world, even twenty
years after her death."
It had been hoped that the statue would be unveiled before
the end of the year to mark the anniversary, but Kensington
Palace said that it was now envisaged that the statue would be
unveiled in 2019.
The first permanent memorial to her, a 210-metre (689-foot)
long fountain was unveiled in Hyde Park in 2004 after years of
bureaucratic wrangling and squabbling over the design.