Currently on display in Coventry, the National Monument Against Violence and Aggression, more commonly known as the ‘Knife Angel’ is a towering, poignant tribute to the lives lost to knife violence.
Artist Alfie Bradley disinfected and blunted more than 100,000 weapons before welding them together to form the angel. Thirty percent of the knives used in the sculpture were bloodied on arrival and came in biohazard bags.
Five years ago it was this gently decaying Hunting Aircraft Jet Provost trainer aircraft XM480.
Delivered new in July 1960 to No.27 Maintenance Unit (MU) at RAF Shawbury XM480 moved to No.1 Flight Training School (FTS) at RAF Linton-on-Ouse three months later. A transfer to No.6 FTS at RAF Acklington followed in June 1962 and a return to No.27 MU in December 1967 for storage.
Declared non-effective in March 1969 XM480 was transported to No.1 School of Technical Training (SoTT) at RAF Halton for ground instructional use and allocated the maintenance serial no. 8080M. A final transfer to RAF Finningley came in February 1994 before finally being tendered for sale in February 1995.
Diane Arbus (American photographer) – March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971.
Jane Bown (English photographer) – March 13, 1925 – December 21, 2014.