Council acts to save public art

The Superlambanana will now stay in the city

Liverpool's yellow Superlambanana sculpture will stay in the city after the council voted to help its owners out of financial difficulties.

Public art owned by the Liverpool Architecture Design Trust (LADT) was under threat when the organisation ran up debts of more than £53,000.

The city council decided to underwrite LADT's debts and take control of its assets at a meeting on Friday.

Members decided to save the artwork ahead of Capital of Culture year.

Other sculptures owned by LADT include the Moores brothers on Church Street, the Irish famine memorial in St Luke's church yard and three sculptures from the 1984 International Garden Festival.

The organisation was set up in 1995 as a centre of excellence for architectural design in the city.

Funding came from several sources, including Liverpool and John Moores universities, Arts North West, and Liverpool City Council.

The trust ran into difficulties when all its financial backers, apart from the council, withdrew funding in 2000.

Costs of keeping the training facilities running continued to increase, and in 2003 the trust was put into voluntary liquidation.