A tale of two sculptures: Ray Lonsdale with his work "The Big Dance" (left) installed in Gretna Green, Scotland, and James Wright's "Togetherness" (right) at Riverhaven Artland in Clevedon.
A war of words has broken out after a sculpture installed at Clevedon’s Riverhaven Artland has been likened to a work at Scotland’s Gretna Green. Kim Knight spoke to artists Ray Lonsdale and James Wright, and the family who have found themselves at the centre of the stoush.
Ray Lonsdale opened the email and did a double take.
On the other side of the world, and almost 16 years since he’d held his wife’s hand to devise a pose he would recreate in steel, was an artistic twin.
“Spot the difference,” Lonsdale wrote last month on social media.
“It’s been brought to our attention that a sculptor (James Wright) in New Zealand has produced an ‘original’ piece that he insists was not a copy of The Big Dance in Gretna Green that I created in 2010.
“It has been commissioned and placed in a sculpture park. Very annoying. Thoughts please.”
Lonsdale, a sculptor based in Durham, England, now wants recognition and recompense for the use of what he claims is his original design.
But back in New Zealand, sculptor James Wright has made an Instagram post of his own:
“Hands are a global motif. No one owns them. They have been painted on caves, cast in bronze, carved in stone - now they rise in Corten steel.
"Togetherness isn’t imitation. It’s a contribution. Two hands. One form. Zero apologies.”
How did a large steel sculpture called The Big Dance, erected in Scotland in 2010, come to be compared to a work called Togetherness at the Riverhaven Artland sculpture park in Clevedon, Auckland?
On Tuesday night, the family behind the New Zealand sculpture commission advised it intends issuing Lonsdale with a cease and desist letter.
Whatever happens next, this started as a love story.
The first sculpture, inscribed with a verse about the lasting relationships that can grow out of inauspicious starts, stands in a Scottish village made famous for its “runaway” marriages.
The later work – created to fulfil a dying man’s wish to honour deep family friendships – is on a tree-planted rural property turned sculpture park, some 30km from downtown Auckland.
Lonsdale only recently learned of the Clevedon sculpture’s existence, via an email from someone he says “strongly believes that artistic copyright was breached”.
He recalls opening the message: “I do a double take, because the first couple of photos, if I remember rightly, were taken from an angle where I thought ‘well, that’s just, you know, of my piece’.
“And then it’s not until you sort of look a bit closer and see the different photos with different people standing in front of them – it’s obviously in a different situation.
“You realise no, that’s not my piece. But it is a copy. There’s no doubt about it.”
Lonsdale wants to be paid a royalty by New Zealand sculptor James Wright (“if I was to design a sculpture and get somebody else to build it, I would expect to receive 25% of the overall cost”) and receive public acknowledgment the work is a copy of The Big Dance “not a reproduction or inspired by or any other vague acknowledgment”.
The Herald has confirmed with both James Wright and the family who commissioned Togetherness that an image of Lonsdale’s work was shared as a reference point – but both parties say the finished work is not a copy.
Via text, Wright told us: “I had seen an image of a work the family had seen (artist unknown) ... I can easily search and find sketches of hands that are similar. Any work that has hands involved will always have similarities”.
Wright described his work as [sic] “bold, clean, symbolic, subtle. Created by my skill, my judgment, my time. Not theatrical or a performance messy segmented structure. Currently working on a commission, a tall elongated figure (6.5m). Same thing. It could be considered to be similar to an Albert Giacometti. But it’s my own design. I have made two other scale works using (hands).
“Technically/structurally I needed to have the male hand over the female, no way I could create full interlocking fingers and be able to weld as one. If you visit my website you’ll see all my work is unique designs, different each time.”
In a letter to Lonsdale that he has shared with Herald, Wright says he has sought legal advice through Copyright Licensing New Zealand and believes there is no legal basis for a claim of copyright infringement.
“My research process was broad and informed by international travels, artistic studies, and most importantly the specific brief provided by the family who commissioned this work.
“Like many artists, I have viewed numerous public sculptures online as part of my general research.
“However, the final sculpture was conceived and executed independently and bears its own anatomical precision and distinct style.”
Wright says “I will not be offering any acknowledgement or monetary payment”.
For his part, Lonsdale says he has no wish to see Togetherness destroyed or hidden, and no desire to add to the grief of the family of Jim Ross – the man who wanted the work that is installed in Clevedon made.
“It’s the design element that I strongly dispute him claiming as his own ...” Lonsdale said in an email.
“Mr Wright as a professional and experienced artist had two options (choices that I myself have faced several times over the years).
“To either offer to create something with a similar feeling but far enough away in design so as not to cause copyright issues or to politely decline the project and walk away.
“Unfortunately, Mr Wright accepted the job as it was and has, in mine and many other people’s opinion, created an almost exact copy of my work.”
Lonsdale is a fitter by trade who had a business fabricating steel gates, rails, litter bins, benches and the like, before coming to an artistic career via sculpture competitions.
“It didn’t rocket, it was a bloody hard slog to get it off the ground.”
In late 2009, he received a sculptural commission from the late Alasdair Houston MBE, the man credited with turning Scotland’s Gretna Green (famous for its facilitation of “runaway” marriages since the mid-1700s) into a major modern wedding and elopement destination.
“His suggestion was a big arch of hands, male and female, that people would get photographs taken underneath. That was the concept and, from that, I had to come up with the design.”
Lonsdale recalls sitting at a table with his wife Bev while their son took photographs of their interlocked hands in various poses – he has sent the Herald a sketch he made at that time, and an image of a half-finished maquette of the work.
“At the time I was almost buying work to create a reputation. It was £30,000 ($67,000) then, but if I was to do that piece now, you’d probably be looking at about £80,000 ($179,000) to £90,000 ($201,000) plus.
“It is mentally draining ... it was a big commitment and he [Houston] wanted it in by Valentine’s Day if I remember rightly.”
Lonsdale had never previously made anything on the scale of The Big Dance, estimating it took four months to create the piece he describes as a “three-dimensional mosaic” of Corten steel (a product that is designed to weather to a rust-like appearance over time).
Houston, the man behind the commission (described recently by a local newspaper as “the backdrop of countless wedding photos”) died in 2021, aged 59. Lonsdale says he has taken on this fight for him, his family and his own reputation and business.
“You know, I’ve been approached quite a few times as a sculptor – ‘oh, I’ve seen this, can you make this?’. And you say ‘I’m sorry, but no’ ... it’s got to be different.
“The two main aspects of sculpture are the design and the manufacture. He’s [Wright] basically just become a craftsman, rather than an artist ... many people design sculptures and get other people to make them, but it’s still their sculpture. It doesn’t work the other way around.”
Riverhaven Artland’s website describes a place to “slow down, play, contemplate and simply be”. It was created by Guy Blundell who, after the death of his wife Sue more than 20 years ago, began planting trees with the idea of creating an arboretum.
Gradually, it became home to two dozen sculptures, and regularly hosts open days, group and guided tours and fundraisers.
Togetherness is its most recently installed artwork. Blundell says it was “a thoughtful, unexpected and generous gift from our very dear friend Jim Ross, who passed away recently from a short illness. It was Jim’s dying wish that we receive a sculpture that represented the connection and friendship between our two families”.
Accompanying online information says the work “speaks of deep friendships and love ... Growing up side-by-side, raising families, celebrating, grieving and all the love, laughter, and life that happens in between.
“And now, our families share a lasting piece of art ... it is a reminder that even in death, the bonds and friendships we create endure.”
Blundell said while Riverhaven was aware something was being made for the property, it had no oversight of the design or concept and had received the sculpture in good faith.
“We were surprised and very sorry to hear a dispute has arisen ... we remain hopeful that both parties are able to come to a resolution as soon as possible,” Blundell told the Herald.
Jim Ross’ son, Cameron, meanwhile, has described the situation as “very upsetting to us all especially during our grieving”.
He says his father Jim – who was born, raised and lived his entire life in the South Auckland area – was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer in March, 2024. A few days before his death, he proposed donating a sculpture to Riverhaven, situated directly across the road from the Ross family home.
“It serves as a place of remembrance where we can go and sit and think about Dad,” says Ross.
He confirmed his parents had visited Gretna Green “and he had a photo of it on his phone”.
According to Ross, his father liked the symbolic meaning of two people holding hands.
“Which signifies affection, closeness, the connection between two people and that it can also provide comfort and support. We felt something like this would be fitting.”
According to Ross, instructions to sculptor James Wright were “nothing more than we liked the symbolic meaning behind holding hands. It meant something to Dad and the family. Jim wanted something visible from the road (through trees) so it had to be large. Using Corten steel fits within the environment, especially during the Pin Oak’s autumn leaves”.
Ross maintains Togetherness is “most definitely” not a copy of The Big Dance.
“There’s a resemblance, however the size, shape, placement of fingers, along with the use of materials, all are completely different. If anything, you could call it an inspiration taken from this and other works around the world, but certainly not a copy.
“Our legal advice is that copyright does not protect the idea of a sculpture showing clasped hands. If you Google ‘hand sculpture, clasping hands, Rodin a pair of hands’ you will see lots of artworks and sculptures of holding hands.
“There’s no reason for us to change the name and pay Mr Lonsdale ... when it’s not a copy.”
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand Herald in 2016 and is a senior journalist on its lifestyle desk. She has received multiple awards for her arts and lifestyle reportage, including the Gordon McLauchlan Journalism Award at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards.
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