Bronze statue of Japanese film director Shindo set up in Moscow

A bronze bust of renowned Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo was set up in a park in Moscow on Saturday, with some 100 people, including actors and those in the film industry in Russia, attending the unveiling ceremony.

Russian bronze sculptor and Shindo's friend Grigori Potocki made the bronze statue of the 99-year-old director, and a nonprofit organization led by the sculptor provided the funding.

Potocki called Shindo ''a wonderful romantic'' and ''the first great foreign film director'' introduced to Russia in the early 1960s, when the Soviet Union first opened itself to the world.

Shindo is the oldest active director in Japan and one of the most renowned Japanese directors in Russia.

His films have won the Grand Prix at the Moscow international film festival three times with ''The Naked Island'' (Hadaka no Shima) in 1961, ''Live Today, Die Tomorrow'' (Hadaka no Jukyu-sai) in 1971, and ''Will to Live'' (Ikitai) in 1999.

Shindo, who also writes the scripts for his movies and for others, has directed 49 films in total, and 231 of his scripts were made into films, many of them winning awards at film festivals in Japan and abroad.

Teddy Roosevelt statue mounted in Oyster Bay

 Oyster Bay's Theodore Roosevelt bronze statue is finally where its supporters always wanted it.

After five years in a temporary, less visible location, the life size bronze statue of Roosevelt atop a horse was placed early Thursday in a newly created mini-park on Route 106 at the gateway to the hamlet.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to have the custom statue placed where it belongs," said Michael Rich, a member of the committee that commissioned the bronze artwork.

The committee always wanted the likeness of the area's most famous resident in his Rough Riders uniform at the triangle-shaped site, but the land had not been available. So it was placed across the street in front of the Boys & Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich, at Route 106 and Berry Hill Road, in 2005.

The 2 1/2-ton large bronze sculpture - a copy of one in Portland, Ore. - was removed from the temporary site several weeks ago to be cleaned and covered with a protective wax. Thursday, after 8 a.m. a crane and crew from Skylift of Orient lifted the life size statue from a flatbed trailer and placed it on its new concrete base.

The Oyster Bay Town Board spent $473,000 in 2008 to buy the triangle from developer and Islanders owner Charles Wang. It spent another $581,000 to prepare the property. The nonprofit statue committee paid $2,500 to remove the temporary concrete pedestal, while more than $7,000 in moving and waxing work was donated.

In addition to the custom bronze statue, the triangle features five trees, each representing an Oyster Bay resident killed during World War I, including Quentin Roosevelt, a son of the former president.

"After 90 years, to see this come to completion is just fantastic," town historian and committee member John Hammond said, referring to how long the bronze statue has been envisioned for the site. "A couple of hundred years from now, people will be enjoying this. It makes an absolutely fabulous entrance to our community."

Bronze Sculptors of Big Statues’ Custom Bronze Statue of the Family to Be Relocated To the Front of American Fork Hospital

Intermountain Healthcare’s custom bronze statue of the family will be moved to the front outdoor courtyard of American Fork Hospital

The custom bronze statue of the family, previously installed inside the front lobby of American Fork Hospital in American Fork, Utah, is being moved to a sunnier setting, just a few hundred feet outside.
The bronze sculpture will be carefully removed from its original home in the middle of the front lobby, and lifted to its new foundation in the outdoor courtyard at the front entrance of the hospital.

The life-size bronze statue will only be moving a short distance, but will need intensive attention to detail and heavy machinery nonetheless.

To move this 1,200 pound bronze statue of four life-size figures, a crane will be used to raise the statue at specially designated points, engineered to withstand the most pressure. At these strongest lifting points, the statue will be lifted and transported all at once to its new setting outdoors.
Bronze sculptor, Matt Glenn, of Big Statues, who sculpted and installed this custom bronze statue several years ago, is coordinating all engineering procedures with the American Fork Hospital Personnel.

The construction manager of the relocation remarked he was very grateful to have the artist’s advice on where to lift and how to move the statue. The bronze statue was secured to its concrete base by steel all-thread bars, drilled into the bottom of the statue. Having all of the exact measurements of where these bars and pressure points are located, will make the guessing game he anticipated obsolete and ensure the safest movement of the bronze work of art.

Once placed and secured outside, the bronze statue will require very little upkeep. Many of bronze sculptors who install their statues outside, coat them with a light layer of wax to ensure they retain their original shine, however some decide to leave them untouched. If undisturbed, the bronze may begin to developed a more antiqued look with a slight change in hue over many years exposed to the elements. Either way, these bronze statues are indestructible once properly installed.

This bronze statue of the family was sculpted after the exact silhouettes in the Intermountain Healthcare logo. With all four figures, husband, wife, daughter, and son, holding hands together, their bodies recreate the image of a strong and loving, single unit. Intermountain Healthcare seeks to uphold this commitment to healing and helping both the individual and entire family of their patients, and the bronze recreation of their logo serves as a physical realization of their characteristic motto.
For more information about bronze sculptors Matt Glenn and the bronze sculpting foundry, Big Statues, visit http://www.bigstatues.com.