Diana Statue Deemed 'Bizarre'

By Stephen M. Silverman

09/16/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

The stonemakers of a life-sized, black granite statue of Princess Diana have run into a brick wall with their creation. When civic leaders in Walsall, England, saw the 1,500-pound (in weight, not in pounds sterling) likeness, they labeled it "demonic and bizarre." The British Press Association says that the statue was unveiled last weekend at a funeral services exhibition in the West Midlands town -- where, once it was seen, a collective audible gasp was reportedly heard. Walsh Ltd., the Staffordshire-based masonry firm that made the statue, has now formally withdrawn its offer to donate the stone Diana to the town center.