Meeting at UC Irvine in Efforts to Get a Bust of Raoul Wallenberg Placed on Campus.

For over a year now, I have been trying to assist in efforts to have a bust of Raoul Wallenberg placed at UC Irvine on behalf of Peter Lancz, son of  Paul Lancz, a world-famous sculptor, who was one of thousands of Jews saved by Wallenberg in the closing days of World War II in Hungary. The proposed bust would come from a mold from the original bust created by the elder Lancz after the war. As matters stand, after much back and forth, UCI has agreed to accept the bust as a gift provided all costs of placement and maintenance are covered by outside donations. UCI has further stated that no donations may be solicited (by Lancz) from normal UCI donors.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2012/01/wallenberg.html


On July 15, Mr. Lancz and I met with Associate Chancellor Ramona Agrela and Richard Demerkjian of the Environmental Planning and Sustainability Department at UC Irvine. The primary purpose of this meeting was obtain a letter of endorsement from the university that Mr Lancz could use in his efforts to obtain funding for the project.

Ms Agrela advised us that the university would not provide such a letter.

Secondly, Ms Agrela advised that they had determined that the cost of installation and maintenance would be $50,000. The molding for the bust is located at a foundry in Montreal.)

When the subject of placement of the bust came up, Ms Agrela stated that they had decided that it would be placed inside a building as opposed to outside. She said that only figures associated with the university itself had structures outside, those not on that level were placed inside. This did not agree with Mr Lancz, and at this point, I asked to comment.

My statement to her was that I had been teaching part time at UCI since 1998 and that in my mind the purpose for this project was in response to anti-Semitism, which I (as a non-Jew) considered to be a resurgent problem world-wide and in the US. I said that it was the universities which were the focal point of this resurgence and that the UC system had an especially large problem. I added that rightfully or wrongfully, UCI had acquired a reputation nationally as the worst in the country in this respect. I added that 99% of our students had nothing to do with this, but that 99% of our students probably had never heard of Wallenberg, had no idea of what he did, or what he stood for. It was for that reason that it was important for such a structure to be outside where all our students could see it and learn more about Wallenberg. I also said that UCI could do a lot to counter its negative image by erecting this statue. Agrela thanked me for sharing that.

Shortly thereafter, the meeting ended. Later, (that day and the following) armed with my secret Red Rider cell phone camera, I took a walk around the campus and photographed what sculptures I could find to see which ones were outside and which were inside.

Above is the only one I have located so far that is inside a building. It is a bust of UCI's first chancellor, Daniel  Aldrich,  located in Aldrich Hall, the administrative building.  The rest so far, as you can see, are outside. This is supposedly reserved for those esteemed figures associated with the university. The first three are of UCI's mascot, the famed anteater.

Below are sculptures of ancient Chinese figures. Their names are listed on the plaque below. They were donated to the school by the Jao family in 2005.

(I guess Raoul Wallenberg is just not on that level.)

So it appears that all efforts to have the bust of Wallenberg placed at UCI have come to naught.