What Is The Biggest Sculpture In The World?

A sculpture is a tactile gift to show you care and immortalise a moment in a way that you can touch, which is why a lot of young families get a bronze casting of the hand of a newborn so they can always have a memento of a childhood that can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Sculptures can come in many different shapes and sizes and commemorate several different milestones and accolades. However, the biggest sculpture by far is the Statue of Unity in Kevadia, Gujarat, India.

This statue, initially announced in 2010 and completed in 2018, is a depiction of Vallabhbhai “Sardar” Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister of India and the man largely credited with uniting the 562 princely states of India to form the Union of India that became the Republic of India that is known today.

He also was a key figure in India’s struggle for independence alongside Mahatma Gandhi and would organise large-scale civil disobedience following Mr Gandhi’s lead in pursuing non-violent courses of action. For this he would receive the honorific “Sandar”, meaning Chief.

Clad in bronze, the statue is 240m tall including its base, which is nearly three times the height of the Statue of Liberty and by some distance the tallest sculpture in the world

It was initially announced in 2013 by then-Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, although just a year into its construction, Mr Modi became the Prime Minister of India and would inaugurate it in that capacity (a position he still holds as of 2023) in 2018.

The design of Mr Patel’s face would be based on a statue at Ahmedabad International Airport, with an expression and posture that captured the leader’s kindness, dignity and will as he battled for independence and helped lead India early after the Second World War.

The statue has five zones surrounding it, which include a memorial garden, a museum and an exhibition area at the base of the statue.