LIFE-SIZE rhino sculptures, painted by well-known artists, are now on display in an Amesbury insurance company.

Fragile by David White and The Unmentionable by Jake and Dinos Chapman are the recent art installations in Animal Friends Insurance, that were bought in a London auction run by Tusk. 

On the plaque below the Chapman brothers' work it reads: "It is a very sad state of affairs that charities appeal to idiots like us to present the appalling truth of the butchering of endangered species, so that rich people can donate money to hopefully stop the practise.

"If you are a rich person reading this you are obliged to put your hand into your very deep pockets, not least because governments have failed, but because the poaching of rhinos is mostly due to the fetishistic idiocy of misguided superstitious people, robbing us, and future generations, of the prehistoric beauty that is the black rhino."

White's work is a realistic interpretation of a rhino where on close inspection scars and markings can be seen, highlighting the hardships rhinos face in the wilderness.

In contrast the Chapman brothers, already known for previous controversial pieces, have covered their fibreglass rhino with an image of a dead rhino with a poached horn.

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Managing director of the company, Wes Pearson, bid for the sculptures to "highlight the terrible losses being inflicted on the world rhino population by poachers".

He described the price he paid for the two rhinos as a "sizeable sum", adding: "The illegal wildlife trade is very lucrative and we at Animal Friends thought that by bidding for these works of art we could both donate money towards stopping this trade as well as highlighting the dangers posed to wildlife by it."

A wide range of rhino sculptures were up for auction in Christie’s Auction House in October as part of the Tusk Rhino Trail, with proceeds from the event going direct to the wildlife conservation charity.

Wes added: "They [the rhinos] are eye-catching and each tells a story about the threats posed to these magnificent creatures which staff and visitors have noticed and talk about.

"They can be a conversation starter and are a brilliant visual way to tell people of our commitment to animal welfare as a company."