WASHINGTON – The seven members of the National Capital Memorials Advisory Commission have unanimously rejected a proposed design for a national memorial to victims of terrorism.
The sculpture, called "Dark Elegy," features 76 figures of nude women either grimacing, tearing at their hair, crying in rage or collapsed in agony. The figures depict the moment the women learned they lost loved ones in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
New York sculptor Suse Lowenstein, who lost a son in the bombing, says the women are shown "unclothed" in the equality of anguish. But commission members said they feared that the nude statues might offend some people, invite vandals and might be too specific to Lockerbie to be a memorial to victims of all terrorism attacks.
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