On May 16th the sculpture group Amphitrite was unveiled in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam by alderman Dennis Straat. The important work of art, being lost for years, is back at its original place.
Already as a sculpture is Amphitrite – wife of Poseidon, goddess of the sea – a masterpiece, one of top sculptures of Amsterdam. It was designed in 1956 by the Belgian artist Albert Termote. The reason that also the general public is excited about it – rather exceptional for a work of art – is that Termote made an object with fun, thanks to its position in a fairylike fountain. Spouts of water coming from body openings and the fountain pond itself give the Azart square the striking accent it needed so much.
The bronze statues were made in the fifties on the occasion of the 100th birthday of the KNSM, the Royal Dutch Steamship Company. When the KNSM in 1980 moved to the western docklands, the city of Amsterdam took them away and after some time they were missing. But they were found back and got in 1989 a temporarily place in front of the Shipping Museum in. And now they are back at their original place.
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