Le Plongeur et son arc (The Diver and his Arc) was placed on the banks of the Meuse in Liège in 2000. This stunning sculpture next to the yacht harbour shows a muscular diver balanced on his hands on top of a giant steel arc. And it has a remarkable history.
The work was actually made more than 60 years earlier by the young Romanian sculptor Idel Lanchelevici, who copied a figure he had made for the 1939 International Water Expo.
When war broke out, the project was abandoned and the copy lay forgotten in the basement of the fine art museum until 1998. This spectacular modern sculpture now stands close to the original site on the banks of the Meuse.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
