Costa Blanca news: Face-lift for Calpe’s iconic sculpture

ANDREU ALFARO’S sculpture Cosmos 62, which returned to Calpe some months ago, is now being restored.
The return of the sculpture was the result of long-drawn-out negotiations between Calpe town hall and the Valencian Institute of Modern Art (IVAM), one of Spain’s leading art museums.
Alfaro’s family provided two other works to replace Cosmos 62 while Calpe town hall has paid the transport expenses and the €16,494 cost of restoring the rusted sculpture.
The sculpture, which dates from 1960, originally belonged to the developer of the Calpesa area Jose Huget, who installed it near the site where the petrol station now stands.
Years later Cosmos 62 was sold to IVAM and taken to Valencia City although, like other works by Andreu Alfaro, who died in 2012, it was created to reflect the site where it was located.
It was because of this, Calpe town hall explained, that the municipality persisted in its negotiations with IVAM to recover the sculpture which was a landmark for generations of Calpe residents.