The controversial statue of the late Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed is set to be removed from Knightsbridge department store Harrods and returned to the latter’s father, former owner Mohammed Al-Fayed.
Revealed in 2005, the statue in question was found on the lower ground floor of the iconic London store. Standing three metres high, the ‘Innocent Victims’ features bronze figures of Diana and Dodi, dancing underneath a dove. 20 years after their deaths, Harrods said that now was an ‘appropriate time’ to move on.
‘We are very proud to have played our role in celebrating the lives of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed at Harrods and to have welcomed people from around the world to visit the memorial for the past twenty years,’ said managing director Michael Ward.
‘With the announcement of the new official memorial statue to Diana, Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace, we feel that the time is right to return this memorial to Mr Al-Fayed and for the public to be invited to pay their respects at the palace,’ he concluded.
‘We are grateful to Qatar Holdings for preserving the Dodi and Diana memorial at Harrods until now,’ Al-Fayed said in a statement. ‘It has enabled millions of people to pay their respects and remember these two remarkable people. It is now time to bring them home.’
NOW READ: 10 Of Princess Diana's Iconic Looks
Princess Diana Iconic Looks
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The Princess donned 90's athleisure in 1995 as she left Chelsea Harbour Club in London.
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Princess Diana wore a cold-shoulder dress by Christina Stambolian to the Serpentine. The dress was infamously named the 'Revenge Dress' as it was the day it was revealed Prince Charles was having an affair with Camilla.
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Diana donned tartan to a charity project in 1990.
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The Princess of Wales wore a beret by John Boyd and a coatdress by Arabella Polle when visiting Wales in November 1982.
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Every inch the Princess, Diana wore sapphire jewels given to her by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia on a visit to Brisbane in 1983.
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Diana wore an 80s turtleneck and tartan suit when attending an event in Portsmouth in 1988.
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Diana wore a blue dress by Yuki and ever the sartorial Queen, adapted her choker to be a hair accessory. The look was for a dinner hosted by Emperor Hirohito in Japan.
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Princess Diana wore a yellow jumpsuit when holidaying in Majorca in 1987.
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Diana wore red on a visit to The Royal School for the Blind on December 4, 1984 in Liverpool.
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The princess wore a Catherine Walker ensemble during an official visit to Dubai on March 17, 1989.
A second memorial to the pair, which has been in place since 1998 and features photographs of both alongside a ring which Dodi allegedly intended to give to Diana, has also been returned to Mr. Al-Fayed, who sold Harrods to the Qatari royal family in 2010 for a reported $1.5 billion.
According to a report in the Telegraph, the new owners’ decision might point to a desire to win back the coveted royal warrant, which the department store lost in 2000 after nearly 90 years of patronage.
It is thought that Mr Al-Fayed’s claims that the deaths of Diana and his son were not accidental, despite an official investigation eventually ruling this out, may have influenced the royal family’s decision to part ways with the store.