statue

Even before the inauguration of the Prigozhin statue, Russia's role in the country was already immortalised by a statue in Bangui, of Russian troops shielding a woman and her children.

The meeting comes amid reports that talks over a deal which would see the statues moved to Athens have recently progressed.

A workshop was set up in front of the cathedral to repair and where necessary replace these statues.

These include the 14th Century statue in the choir known as the Virgin of the Pillar, which narrowly avoided being crushed by falling masonry.

Sixteen years after the discovery of the London gladiatrix and roughly 580 miles away, a statue of a fighting noblewoman was discovered in Germany.