Igor Mitoraj in London
London holds three confirmed permanent Mitoraj bronzes — all at Canary Wharf, the financial district in east London developed from the 1980s onwards. The collection spans from 1983 to the 2000s and includes one of Mitoraj's earliest documented monumental works, a Centurione I casting, and an Eros Bendato. Together they form the most significant public Mitoraj presence in the United Kingdom.
Testa Addormentata (Sleeping Head) — 1983
Testa Addormentata — the Sleeping Head — is among the earliest of Mitoraj's monumental bronze works to enter a permanent public collection. Cast in 1983, just a few years after Mitoraj had definitively committed to sculpture at the Pietrasanta foundries, it predates the Centurione series and shows an earlier, more directly classical approach to the fragmented head subject. The surface is smooth, the form more complete than the bandaged, excavated heads of the 1980s and 1990s — yet the same preoccupations are already present: the closed eyes, the sense of a consciousness withdrawn from the world, the monumental scale applied to something intimate and inward.
The Canary Wharf development — which transformed the derelict West India Docks into London's second financial centre through the late 1980s and 1990s — made a deliberate commitment to public art as part of its identity. The Testa Addormentata was acquired as part of this programme, placing Mitoraj's work in daily contact with the tens of thousands of workers and visitors who pass through the estate.
Centurione I — Permanent
Centurione I at Canary Wharf is a monumental casting of the series that became Mitoraj's most recognisable subject worldwide. First created in 1987 in an edition of 250 (desktop scale), the Centurione I subject was subsequently cast in larger and monumental formats for public collections. The Canary Wharf example is a significant permanent installation, positioned within the estate's public realm.
The Centurione — the face of a Roman soldier, helmeted, fragmented, with the eyes absent or sealed — resonated particularly with the corporate architectural context of Canary Wharf. The fragment of ancient authority placed among the glass towers of modern finance creates a visual argument about the continuity of power, its limits, and its costs.
See also: Full Centurione series guide · Centurione II
Eros Bendato (Bound Eros) — Permanent
Eros Bendato — Bound Eros — is one of Mitoraj's most celebrated subjects: the face of the god of love, eyes bandaged, bound and blinded. The subject appears across his entire career in multiple scales and editions, from the monumental Kraków installation in Rynek Główny to smaller collector editions. The Canary Wharf example is a permanent installation within the public estate.
The bandaging of Eros — the binding of love, of desire, of the sensory — is one of Mitoraj's most legible symbolic gestures. In the context of a financial district, the image of Eros blinded acquires a specific irony that the artist almost certainly intended: the city that runs on appetite, placed next to the god of desire, rendered sightless.
See also: Full Eros Bendato guide — buy & sell · Eros Bendato in Kraków
Canary Wharf's Mitoraj Collection in Context
The three Mitoraj works at Canary Wharf form the most concentrated public collection of his bronzes in the UK. They were acquired across different phases of the Canary Wharf development, with the Testa Addormentata predating the main development surge and the Centurione and Eros Bendato arriving as the estate matured. The Canary Wharf Group, which manages the estate, has maintained a consistent commitment to major international sculpture — Henry Moore, Antony Gormley, and Pierre Vivant are among the other artists represented in the permanent collection.
For visitors, all three Mitoraj works are accessible as part of Canary Wharf's public realm, which is freely open daily. The estate is best accessed via the Jubilee line (Canary Wharf station) or the Elizabeth line (Canary Wharf station), with the DLR also serving the area.
The UK Mitoraj Collector Market
British buyers have been among the most consistently active in the international Mitoraj secondary market. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams London have all achieved strong results for Centurione, Persée, and Eros Bendato bronzes. The UK market particularly favours the smaller desktop editions — Centurione I and II, Tête Secrète, Kea — which circulate through both the major auction houses and specialist dealers.
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