Ian
Rank-Broadley, whose effigy of the Queen has appeared on all UK
and Commonwealth coinage since 1998, will design the statue,
which now will not be unveiled until next year.
"Ian is an extremely gifted sculptor and we know that he will
create a fitting and lasting tribute to our mother," Prince
William and his younger brother Harry said in a statement.
In January, the brothers commissioned a statue in honor of their
mother, who died in a Paris car crash 20 years ago to be erected
outside their official London home Kensington Palace.
Diana, the first wife of the heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles,
was killed when the limousine carrying her and her lover Dodi
al-Fayed crashed in a Paris tunnel in August 1997.
William was 15 and Harry was 12 at the time.
"We have been touched by the kind words and memories so many
people have shared about our mother over these past few months,"
the brothers said. "It is clear the significance of her work is
still felt by many in the UK and across the world, even twenty
years after her death."
It had been hoped that the statue would be unveiled before the
end of the year to mark the anniversary, but Kensington Palace
said that it was now envisaged that the statue would be unveiled
in 2019.
The first permanent memorial to her, a 210-metre (689-foot) long
fountain was unveiled in Hyde Park in 2004 after years of
bureaucratic wrangling and squabbling over the design.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout)
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