London store Harrods to remove Diana statue

London, Jan 13 (AFP) London luxury department storeHarrods said today it was taking down a statue of the latePrincess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi ...

London, Jan 13 (AFP) London luxury department storeHarrods said today it was taking down a statue of the latePrincess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed and returningit to former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Al Fayed commissioned the bronze statue, which shows hisson and Diana holding hands and releasing a bird, after theywere killed in a Paris car crash in 1997.

It remained there after he sold Harrods to the investmentarm of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund in 2010.

But the store's managing director, Michael Ward, said itwas now time to return it, noting that Diana's sons PrincesWilliam and Harry were commissioning their own statue to theirmother at Kensington Palace.

"We are very proud to have played our role in celebratingthe lives of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed atHarrods and to have welcomed people from around the world tovisit the memorial for the past 20 years," he said.

"With the announcement of the new official memorialstatue to Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, wefeel that the time is right to return this memorial to Mr AlFayed and for the public to be invited to pay their respectsat the palace."Al Fayed has accused the royals of masterminding thedeath of Diana and his son, and as a result Harrods lost itsroyal warrant in 2000.

A spokesman for the Al Fayed family told The Timesnewspaper it was "grateful" to Qatar Holdings for preservingthe memorial of the couple, adding: "It is now time to bringthem home." (AFP)MRJ.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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