Turkey’s first Atatürk statue in Istanbul restored

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s first Atatürk statue, which is located in Istanbul’s Sarayburnu foreland where the Bosphorus faces the entrance of the Marmara Sea and has been the subject of controversy for a while due to its neglect, was restored by the Istanbul Municipality teams.

The restoration and maintenance works began for the monument built in 1926 by the Austrian sculptor Heinrich Krippel after growing complaints from residents on social media.

The waste and dirt on the bronze cast statue were cleaned and the gilding paint and other remains were removed by a team of expert restorers and conservators within the scope of the works.

The intense corrosion on the surface of the statue was also cleaned and protective treatment was applied as well.

A landscape arrangement project, which is at the approval stage, is expected to be made around the statue.

The sculpture and the casting were made in Krippel’s workshop in Vienna in one year at the Austrian United Mine Works and were brought to Istanbul in pieces and placed under the sculptor’s supervision.

The monument in Sarayburnu is one of the few examples where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, was defined as a statesman in the early Republican period.