Sheffield School of Art

The Sheffield School of Art Building used to be on Arundel Street. It was bombed in 1940 and demolished in 1964. It used to have five terracotta roundels on the front depicting the heads of famous artists like Leonardo Da Vinci. The roundels were meant to have been taken into safe keeping but seem to have disappeared. Does anyone have any idea where they are?

I believe the Sheffield school of art is now part of Hallam University. They have lots of old artwork which is often on display in exhibitions in the Cantor Building. I've seen some interesting items from their collection in display cases there. Maybe they have the pieces you ask about too.

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Thanks for the suggestion. It's actually Sheffield Hallam University that wants to locate the roundels! I had a bit of luck in Local Studies Library today and found a newspaper article about the demolition. It was actually 1960, not 1964 and they think the heads were of Michaelangelo, Holbein, Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Durer and Raphael. I've asked Sheffield Archives, Kelham, Museums Sheffield and the Council. Now run out of ideas . . .

This is going to be a long shot idea. In the newspaper article of the demolition does it state who demolished the building? If it does the company may still be around and may have a record of what happened to the heads. If not the heads might have gone to a auction and may now be in a private collection, when I did research on country houses that have been demolished sometimes any features the demolition company thought were worth selling were sold off though auctions. Or it possible the heads were destroyed in the demolition of the building from what Iv seen seems a real loss.

Funny how these things have a tendency to disappear. A young work colleague and his pal spent the best part of a day chopping out a carved lintol from a school that was being demolished. He'd purchased it from the demolition foreman but was told he would have to take it out himself. He didn't have any suitable transport on the day but when he went to collect it the following day it had vanished. The foreman just shrugged his shoulders. Sold it again was my guess.

I understand the building was demolished by the Council's Dangerous Structures department. The School was managed by the Council at that time before it became one of the founding departments of Sheffield Polytechnic in 1969. It says in the article that it was taken into the safe keeping of the City Architects' department. My inquiries with the Council have had no success!