Nottingham Evening News, Tuesday, July 16, 1957
Queen’s Loan
THE Queen has lent an exhibit for the first London show of the works of a remarkable Nigerian sculptor. Felix Idubor is something of a prodigy. Now 29 years old, he is entirely self taught and began carving in wood at the age of eight.
At 12 he was earning his living by carving in his native town, Benin Cify, in Western Nigeria, and at 17 moved to Lagos and found a wider public.
The British Council and the United States Information Service in Nigeria have both sponsored exhibitions of his work in the past. and he is now in London on a UNESCO travelling scholarship.
When the Queen visited Nigeria the Federal Government asked Idubor to carve a casket for her as a souvenir of the occasion. It is this elaborate work which the Queen has lent to a show of some 40 Idubor carvings at the Imperial Institute.
