Portuguese media has reported that the controversial bronze bust of Cristiano Ronaldo has been replaced at the airport on Madeira. The bronze bust bears the name of the Portugal legend.
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“This bust is much better than the other one, that’s what everyone thinks,” Hugo Aveiro, brother of Ronaldo told the Diario de Noticias da Madeira newspaper.
“A Spanish sculptor offered this new bust … so good that we decided to change it,” he added.
The substitution of the bust took place on the same day that Ronaldo, scored a hat-trick against Spain in Portugal’s World Cup opener.
The man behind the original design was Madeiran artist Emanuel Santos who unveiled it at a ceremony to rename the airport after Ronaldo, who belongs to the state capital Funchal.
However, Santos was criticized for his work.
“It is impossible to please the Greeks and Trojans. Neither did Jesus please everyone,” he said.
“This is a matter of taste, so it is not as simple as it seems. What matters is the impact that this work generated. There is always the possibility of making a difference, I was prepared for all this. I used as a base some photos of Cristiano Ronaldo that I found on the internet, nothing specific, i put the photos next to me and started working on the bust.”
“I was with the brother at Cristiano’s museum in Madeira and from the messages he sent, I could tell that he liked what he saw. He only asked for some wrinkles to be changed, that give him a certain expression in his face when he’s about to laugh,” Santon stressed.
“There are no busts or statues in bronze that look like the person.”What looks like him are both wax statues that I have at the museum, but this bust is better than the previous one, it’s what we think, me and him,” airport director Duarte Ferreira explained.
