Statue of St Andrew with missing hand finds permanent home in Wardlaw museum

A statue of Saint Andrew has found its permanent home at the Wardlaw Museum.

It’s been at the University of St Andrews museum for five years under temporary planning permission, but this week Fife Council decided that it should stay there for good.

A couple months ago, the University applied for planning permission to keep the Saint Andrew statue at the Wardlaw Museum.

Saint Andrew is Scotland’s patron saint, and the stone sculpture is a copy of the same statue in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

It was gifted to St Andrews University in the 1960s, and it previously resided in the car park of the St Andrews Botanic Garden.

However, in 2018 the sculpture was damaged as its left hand was broken off and went missing.

The University put out a public appeal to reunite the stone hand with the statue, but it was never found.

Instead, Saint Andrew was relocated to the Wardlaw Museum courtyard in 2019. As part of the move, the statue was expertly restored.

“The relocation has greatly increased the visibility and prominence of the sculpture. The relocation work included repairs and conservation,” planning papers stated.

“When the museum is closed, the gates are closed, giving physical protection to the sculpture.”

The museum already had the five year temporary planning permission in place, but now it has permanent planning permission to keep the statue where it is.