Bart Walter Sculpture of Lion and Boy

Carroll County sculptor brings wild imagination to Westminster Library
By Jay R. Thompson

Drivers on Main Street in Westminster will soon notice an addition to the downtown decor.

A life-size bronze lion will be sitting like a majestic sentinel atop a granite pedestal near the entrance of the Westminster Library.

"It really was a library-inspired piece," said Lisa Back, a spokeswoman for the Carroll County Public Library system.

"At the base of the lion is a young boy who is reading a book," she said. "It's a physical representation of books transporting us to other worlds."

The sculpture "Wild Imaginings" was created by Westminster artist Bart Walter, who's been a full-time professional sculptor for three decades, during which time he's done about a dozen pieces of this scale.

"We thought it was important to use local artists to keep it tied to the community," Back said.

The lion will sit atop a polished, black granite pedestal that's about 3 feet tall. The top of the lion will be about 8 feet above ground level.

"I'm sure visitors will notice the lion first, and I hope it will communicate a real lion to them," said Walter, who has created works for The Smithsonian National Zoo, in Washington, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., the Maryland Zoo, in Baltimore, and Northwest Middle School, in Taneytown.

"But then they'll notice the boy and wonder about the boy in the context of a lion, and hopefully think about reading and how it can transport you to anywhere you want to be," he said.

"For children, hopefully it will open up their imagination," he said.

Walter knows what it's like to be transported by books.

"I grew up in Baltimore," he said. "I was stuck in the city all week and I became a mental traveler through books."

Walter's sculpture will be unveiled Friday, Sept. 17, at 3 p.m. at a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of the library's renovation.

The Westminster branch is 30 years old, Back said.

"It was showing its age inside as well as outside," she said. Over the course of about three years, the library's roof has been replaced, lighting was improved, accessibility and walkways were improved, and the public spaces inside were renovated, including the children's area.

"You go through a tunnel to go into the children's area," Back said.

The cost of the renovation, not including the sculpture, was around $1.6 million, paid for with a state grant and with matching funds from the county.

"The final stage is the re-landscaping of the park in front of the branch," Back said.

The sculpture was paid for with private donations -- with a healthy discount from the artist himself, who said normally, a piece this size can run hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"We did it as a favor to a local institution that we enjoy and have enjoyed for a long time," Walter said. "I was just trying to help them make it happen."

The sculpture echoes a tradition of putting lion statues at the entrances of buildings.

"Sculptures have been used as guardians of libraries and art museums for well over 100 years," Walter said.

Some notable examples of lion statues as guardians are at the New York Public Library and at the Baltimore Museum of Art, putting the Westminster branch among grand company.

"Coming to the library should be more of an event than an errand," Back said.

"Wild Imaginings" is the first of four sculptures the Westminster branch library hopes to purchase from local artists.

The next piece will be carved on site next summer from limestone contributed by the Lehigh Cement Company in Union Bridge. The library is still searching for an artist and an artwork for that block of stone, Back said.



If your entrance needs a lion, or two, we have what you're looking for. Like our "Majestic Lions" pictured above, we can make your entranceway, public area, park, or landscape really stand out. Check out our website for all our beautiful lions and other animals.

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Pierino da Vinci sculpture needs Saving

via Sculptsite.com

Bid made to save rare Pierino da Vinci sculpture
An effort to keep a bronze artwork by Leonardo da Vinci's nephew in the UK is being made by banning its export.

Authorities hope the temporary measure will allowing funding for Pierino da Vinci's sculpture to be found.

The piece, which depicts a harrowing scene from Dante's Inferno, has a recommended value of £10m.

Part of the Devonshire collection, it has been called "a treasure of the utmost importance" by the Reviewing Committee recommending the ban.

The sculpture, which was once thought to be the work of Michaelangelo, will not be able to be exported until September.

If serious interest in purchasing the artwork is shown, it is likely to be extended until June 2011 to finalise any deal.

Bids from public bodies for less than the recommended value will be considered by culture minister Ed Vaizey.

The bronze sculpure, a rare work by Da Vinci's nephew, was made during the 16th Century, and was brought to England one hundred years later.

Pierino da Vinci died in Pisa in 1553 aged just 24, but had been considered a successor to the talent of his illustrious uncle.


At bigbronze.com we have many classically styled bronze works in-stock and special order, so if you want to add a bit of roman art to your home without the pricetag of an original come check us out!


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Greek police seize 2 rare statues from 2 farmers

AP Associated Press
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS

ATHENS, Greece - Police in southern Greece have seized a rare twin pair of 2,500-year-old marble statues and arrested two farmers who allegedly planned to sell them abroad for euro10 million ($12.43 million), authorities said Tuesday.

Police said two Greeks aged 42 and 48 were arrested in the Peloponnese area late Friday as they were loading the illegally excavated figures of young men into a truck. Authorities are seeking a third man suspected of belonging to a smuggling gang that planned to spirit the 6th century B.C. works out of the country.

"This is a very important find, of fabulous value, and (both statues) were ready to be taken out of Greece," Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos said.

Archaeologists said Tuesday the statues are "outstanding works of art" and may have come from a temple or cemetery in a lost ancient city in the Peloponnese region in southern Greece. Both are in excellent condition, but lack sections of their lower legs and were gashed by a plow or digging machinery.

They stand 1.82 meters (5 feet 9 inches) and 1.78 meters (5 feet 8 inches) high, and were probably carved by the same sculptor out of thick-grained island marble between 550-520 B.C, at the height of the archaic period of sculpture.

"They are exactly the same, with a slight variation in hairstyle and a small difference in height," said Nikos Kaltsas, director of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens where the finds were temporarily housed for conservation and study. "The artist may have wanted to produce two similar figures that would form part of a group."

The statues are of the stiff, highly formalized Kouros type widespread in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. which portrayed gods, heroes or aristocrats and were painted in bright colors. From the 5th century on, Greek sculpture became more fluid and lifelike, culminating in the naturalism of the Hellenistic era.

Such discoveries in good condition are uncommon - about three have turned up during excavations in the past decade. But matching pairs are particularly rare.

Although the precise spot of the find is still unclear, authorities believe it may coincide with the lost ruins of Tenea, a city that according to ancient writers lay between Corinth and Mycenae and was first populated by prisoners of war brought back by victorious Greeks from the Trojan War - recorded in Homer's "Iliad." A similar, but slightly earlier statue discovered in what may have been Tenea's cemetery is displayed in Munich.

Archaeologists hope to find the missing leg sections, because the breaks are recent.

Police chief Lefteris Economou said the arrests followed information from culture ministry officials. He provided no details on the identity of the potential buyers or which country the finds had been heading for.

Antiquities looting is a major problem in Greece, where treasures - by law all state property - can lie inches below farmers' plows or modern buildings, especially in cities like Athens that have been constantly inhabited for thousands of years.

Illegally excavated finds can be impressive to look at, but all the valuable context, which in an organized excavation provides information on their use, date and origin, is lost during hasty looting digs.

"Going after antiquities thieves is our main priority," Geroulanos said. "Work has been done in that direction ... and we are starting to see the first major results."

Dozens of illegally exported finds have been returned to Greece over the past few years, including four masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.



If you want an ancient looking sculpture but don't feel like smuggling the real thing check out some of our replica pieces like our Perseus Slaying Medusa! Check out all our products here.

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National Sculpture Society to hold Annual Celebration Weekend

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Sculpture Society will hold its annual "Sculpture Celebration Weekend" May 20 through May 23 in Washington, D.C.. The events and festivities will include tours of important national monuments with their creators, including famed sculptors Stanley Bleifeld and Neil Eastern, as well as award presentations to Michael Graves, Bruno Lucchesi and other luminaries of the art world.

The event opens Thursday evening, May 20, with a Welcome Reception at the Arts Club, in the President James Monroe House. Friday will feature private tours with the sculptors of the Franklin D. Roosevelt and U. S. Navy memorials, and a reception in the President's Room, Navy Memorial Theater, with Welcome by Rear Admiral Edward K. Walker, Jr. President and CEO of the U. S. Navy Memorial Foundation.

Saturday starts with an informative presentation with Lauren Lee Cobb of C.A.S.E. Solutions Advertising about the latest interactive tools in marketing. After lunch, attendees will gather at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, where they can meet with celebrated figure sculptor Eugene Daub for a special opportunity to examine the Museum's extensive medallion collection or explore the museum on their own.

Sunday provides an opportunity to explore monuments throughout Washington, D. C. by National Sculpture Society members. Several living sculptors of these works will be in attendance, including Neil Estern (US Navy Memorial), Stanley Bleifeld (FDR Memorial) Nina Akamu (Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During WWII), Kristen Kokkin ("Crown Princess of Norway" outside Norwegian Embassy) and Bart Walter ("The Gathering" at the Smithsonian National Zoo).



If you're looking to add a "monument" to your garden landscape, park, or public space we have a large selection of in-stock bronze statues and fountains to fit your needs.

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What makes a Bronze Sculpture Controversial?

If you visit enough parks, museums, or public spaces, eventually you're going to come upon a sculpture, statue, or even a fountain that may be deemed "controversial" But what makes it controversial? Is it just the subject matter or the way a subject is portrayed? Or maybe it's just the reaction it produces from the people that see it. Human nature is to project our belief systems onto others and what would be taboo to some is perfectly acceptable to others. A realistic bronze sculpture of a nude woman is a perfect example. Some see the nude body as a work of art in of itself, which should be celebrated as such. Others view it as nothing more than an attempt to exploit and titilate in order to gain some sort of fame. So, does the controversy lay with the piece or viewer's perception of it? The next time you come across a "controversial" statue or fountain ask yourself who's making it into a big deal, the artist, or you.
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Buying Bronze Sculpture 101: Shipping Tips and Cost

Shipping a large piece of bronze sculpture or fountain is no small task. Many times, the cost of shipping can be a deal breaker when a piece needs to be shipped across country. Bronze is heavy, especially when you're dealing with life-size works. Most people don't realize the cost involved and often directly compare the shipping cost to the price they paid for the statue or fountain itself. We encourage our customers not to do this for two reasons; first, you're liable to miss out on an incredible price and second, the shipping cost we're able to offer is often far and away better than you would pay as an individual. We often recommend brokers like Blue Grace Logistics or Diversified Transportation Services who can get the lowest rates by bidding the job to competing companies. Also, you must take into account the work that goes into getting your bronze ready for shipment. Each piece must be carefully wrapped and crated, with the crate being completely tailored to each work of art. This service is often free. In fact, if you ever need to ship a piece yourself you'll want to be sure to put it on a pallet base for easy moving, and build a secure crate with a lot of supports for the piece so it won't move around during it's journey. Not doing so will most likely result in damage to your sculpture or you may not be allowed to ship it at all. A good way to know if you're getting a good deal on shipping is if the amount is pre-paid or collect. If it's pre-paid the company has most likely added a pecentage over the estimate they received to cover themselves, but this means you may be paying an extra couple hundred dollars you didn't need to. The same holds true with "Free Shipping"; generally this just means that the cost of the shipping has been added in to your price, with the same mark-up you'd find with the pre-paid. We like doing freight collect. It ensures that the customer only pays the exact amount due and eliminates the upcharge we would have to include. This way, the customer knows they're not being taken for more money than needed. At bigbronze.com we want our customers to feel they are getting the maximum savings we can provide, be it through us or an outside broker.

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Copper Prices Affecting Bronze Sculpture and Statue Art

Many people don't realize that the price of the bronze sculptures, statues, and fountains they love are affected greatly by the cost of copper. Bronze is made up of 70 - 90% copper along with some other alloys. When the cost of copper goes up, as it has in the last few months, the price of the sculptures and fountains must increase as well. Many of our prices are still based on the pre-inflation prices of copper making them even more of a bargain. This is another reason buying a bronze sculpture is a good investment. As the copper prices continue to rise, so does the value of your piece.

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Tasmanian "Tazzy" Tiger Thylacine Original Bronze Animal Sculpture Art

Here at All Classics Ltd. and bigbronze.com we're always coming up with new and unique concepts for our original, exclusive bronze sculptures and statues. We thought it would be neat to do a statue of the fabled Tasmanian Tiger. We always thought it was a perfect subject to be immortalized in bronze and could be a great addition to a museum, display, or private collection. And, wouldn't you know it, the response has been great! We sold the first 2 pieces made within a month of their arrival. Both to private collectors. This piece is our very own design so it can't be found anywhere else, making it very rare, and a very good investment.

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Buying a Bronze Sculpture 101: Understanding the Process

The history of bronze sculpture dates back several thousand years, and was predominately used in Greece, Egypt, Rome and the Near Eastern civilizations. Many of the same techniques used thousands of years ago are still in use today, in fact.

Bronze is an alloy made by melting copper and tin in varying proportions, but the resulting metal is easily worked and melted, does not rust and has a smooth finish. The ability to be colored artistically using chemical treatment combined with the ease of use makes bronze an ideal medium for many artisans.

The earliest method of making bronze sculpture was to use solid masses of bronze, but later artisans developed the lost wax casting method, which enabled the artists of the time to develop larger works of art, and produce the bronze sculptures faster.

About a thousand years ago, artists began using the lost wax casting method to create their masterpieces, and has been used by such renowned artists as Donatello, Rodin, Remington, and Russel, to name a few. The process of lost wax casting allows artists to produce as many works of their art as they feel fit, and while no two pieces of bronze sculpture are the same, all bronze made from the same mold is still original artwork.

Many famous sculptures belong in the public domain, and can be recreated in bronze using the lost wax casting method process to put a piece of history in your home or landscape project, at an affordable cost.

The Process

The first step in creating a bronze sculpture using the lost wax casting method is to sculpt the original piece from which the mold will be made. All the detail is captured in this stage, which is the basis for the rest of the process.

The next step of casting is to pour molten wax into the mold, using layers of wax to form an exact duplicate of the original casting.

The wax is pulled from the mold and detailed, or chased, welded and polished by individual artisans. Each piece may contain some small variation from the original, but the reproductions remain true to the original sculpture.

Wax rods and pouring cups are attached to the wax casting to assure a full pour. Using a temperature controlled climate, the wax casting is dipped into investment liquid (liquid clay, essentially). After the first dip, a powder is applied to the clay, and on subsequent dips a layer of ceramic sand is applied, creating a ceramic mold that must be allowed to dry between layers.

The ceramic shell is then placed into a kiln and fired, the shell is baked and the wax is melted (lost) from the shell, creating a hollow ceramic shell mold and the phrase 'lost wax casting.' The mold is removed from the kiln, and molten bronze is poured into the shell at about 2100 degrees Fahrenheit.

After several hours of cooling, the unfinished bronze is carefully stripped of the ceramic shell. The ceramic shell fragments are carefully removed from the bronze, which is carefully inspected at this stage.

If required, this is the time when a master craftsman would weld larger sections together, and chase or re-detail the weld marks. Afterward, the craftsman uses a process called 'glass beading' in which the bronze is sprayed with powdered glass under extremely high pressures to ensure an even bronze finish.

The bronze is now hand polished and heated to await the patina application. The patina is hand applied by the artisan, and a layer of wax is hand applied with heat to ensure a lustrous patina finish. After a final inspection, the bronze sculpture is now ready for delivery and display.

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Buying a Bronze Sculpture 101: Artist vs. Wholesale

A question brought to us a lot is,"Who is the artist?" or "Is the piece signed?" The idea that you are owning a one of a kind or limited edition piece from an established artist is very appealing to people. However, the price that goes along with owning one of these "artist" originals isn't appealing at all. And there in lies the major difference with owning an artist's bronze sculpture vs. a wholesale bronze sculpture, the price. Bronze art sculptures, statues, and fountains are all made the same way with the same materials, whether they are hot cast or cold cast. With an artist piece you're paying for the name, or reputation. When you buy from a wholesaler, you're paying for the bronze, and not the artist's ego. The quality of the pieces are virtually the same. In fact, many of the foundries that create the pieces sold at a wholesaler are used to make the limited editions sold by an artist at a fancy gallery. The only other difference between an artist's bronze and a wholesale bronze is quantity. Generally artist pieces are done in very limited editions whereas wholesale pieces are done in quantity. Both have inherent value that will increase over time as metal prices increase. So, before you make your purchase, decide what you're really after, a piece you can sit back and enjoy knowing you paid a fair price for, or an artist piece you can enjoy, but hope you didn't pay too much and whether the artist's name will grow. Either way, they're both bronze and will last a lifetime and longer. It's just a matter of the price you want to pay.

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Custom Ronald Reagan for the USS Ronald Reagan and Library

A few years back we did a custom bronze sculpture for the USS Ronald Reagan of the president. The life-size bronze statue is situated in the welcome center as you come on board. The ship is docked in the harbor in San Diego. This piece was donated as a show of our patriotism and support of the Reagan memory. Another model was donated to the ranch the family had by Nancy herself. A third was placed in Reagan's boyhood hometown. And another is in the state house in Maryland. The final piece in the series was to be sold to a private collector, however it was never picked up. It is now available for sale at our ebay store at a significant discounted price. It would be a great addition to a library, museum exibit, or private collection. You can see it here.

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Extreme Makeover Home Edition Season 5 Horse sculpture donation

A couple years ago we actually donated a piece to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team for a build in Port Deposit, Maryland. We donated our standing foal statue pictured above. It sits in the center of the circle driveway leading up to the home. We've made several donations to all kinds of school, organizations, and museums, but this one was especially nice because it went to a family in need. You can see more pictures of the piece here: http://www.ctextremedream.com/

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Salvador Dali Venus de Milo Surrealist Bronze Sculpture Statue

This is our custom made, 3-D representation, of the Salvador Dali painting of the Venus de Milo with pencil drawers. Dali was enamoured with the icon for the Venus pencil company so he decided to do a painting of her. We're big fans of Dali so we decided to created a bronze sculpture of his painting. She's a very cool piece that we think any art collector would love.

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Bronze Custom Order Statues Sculptures

We're working on 3 custom bronze sculptures for an installation designed by an artist in Canada. Each piece is being done to his exact specifications. We often do custom work to accomodate people's needs. Our bronze sculptures are created by self taught artisans that take great pride in their work. We can custom make any type of piece in any style. Animals, children, memorial busts, and mascots are many of the types of custom pieces that get made.

Dino Days Exibit at the Delaware Natural History Museum

Our T-Rex Aluminum skull sculpture is featured in the beginning of the video. We loaned the piece for use during the Dino Days exibit at the Delaware Natural History Museum.

Aluminum T-Rex skull in the Local paper!

Our Aluminum, Life-size, Bronze colored T-rex skull is a featured attraction at the Dino Days exibit at the Delaware Natural History Museum. The local paper did a little write up about the exibit and what did we see?! Our piece as the featured article picture! We have many different skulls done in bronze but this is the only one that was created in aluminum. These skull sculptures are great for animal or natural history lovers and make a unique addition to any collection. They're hand cast in bronze, or in the case of this piece, aluminum, and hand colored.

Christmas is only days away! Get a unique gift at a great price!

We're offering up the best prices of the year. Get that special someone a truly unique gift with one of our bronze sculptures, statues, or fountains. We're due for a big price increase after the 1st of the year which means these prices won't last. We've got everything from children to animals to fine art. There's something for everybody and at foundry direct pricing! We can even do custom work!

T-Rex featured at Dino Days in the Delaware Museum of Natural History

We recently donated a lifesize T-Rex skull, and some of our other fossil skulls, to the Delaware Museum of Natural History for their Dino Days exibit. We were pleasantly surprised when they sent us their quarterly program and our T-Rex was on the cover! They also did a little write up about us on the inside. We're one of only a very few companies that makes fossil skulls in bronze, most are made from resin, and we're certainly the only one that makes these sculptures available at the prices we offer. Most resin castings cost more than one of our bronze skulls. We like ours because it allows people to interact and touch them without fear of damage.

We've Been ATTACKED! Malware and other Viruses

I guess we're starting to ruffle some feathers! Our site was hacked and infected with malware over the weekend. What a nightmare! All is okay though as we were able to catch it early and remove it. Our low prices must have upset some of our competitors because we're pretty sure it was done by one of them. We actually had a competitor, ImportLiquidators.com, LifeSizeStatue.com, and displaystatues.com of South Hampton New York steal our website a few years ago and lable it as his own. We're not saying it was them this time but we're always suspicious. They must be mad because they can't compete with our pricing. Our selection. Or our customer service. See what all the fuss is about here!

Loggerhead Turtle for Marina Chain

We created this custom piece for a chain of boat Marinas in Florida. They were used to greet people as they entered the marina on land. The loggerhead turtle is a protected species in florida with many sanctuaries dedicated to helping them recover from injuries from boats and jet skis. We've also sold the piece to an aquarium in North Carolina and a few other places. It's a popular piece. A new version is actually in the works to replace this one as we'd like a more natural looking base. We can custom create pieces to any size or specification. CALL US! 302.738.2190