One of Gundagai’s most treasured displays, the Rusconi Marble Masterpiece, has reopened with the new additions of some audio visual presentations and photos now available for visitors to enjoy.
The 1.2 metre display will be permanently available at the Visitor Information Centre and reopened with the new Visitor Centrelate in 2025.
Casey Polsen, from the Gundagai Visitor Information Centre, says they are encouraging more locals to come into the new centre and “check out the offerings” when they visit the marble masterpiece.
“We’ve got the Marble Masterpiece back open, which continues to be a wonderful talking point for both locals and visitors at the Gundagai Visitor Information Centre,” she says.
“Locals enjoy free entry, while visitor entry fees are adults for five dollars, pensioners for three dollars, children for two dollars, or 10 dollars for a family group, [which makes] it an affordable experience for anyone interested in local history and craftsmanship.”
With a visual presentation and audio now accompanying the masterpiece, Casey says it is the perfect time to go in and listen to the audio and learn a new piece of information.
“We have slowly been adding bits and pieces to it, and now that we’ve got both the audio and the visual presentations, and we’ve also got some beautiful photos that have been donated by the family, it is a really lovely experience in there now,” she says.
“In our lull period it would be great to see more locals come through the centre.”
Made from more than 20,000 individually cut pieces of marble, the structure was a personal project that Rusconi worked on for over a 28-year period.
Elaborately detailed, the four-foot high model of an imaginary Baroque Italian palace is set in a formal square that consists of 20,948 pieces from 20 different marble varieties.
Reflecting his precision, skill and passion for stonework, each tiny component brings together influences from the artist’s international training in Italy, Switzerland, France and England.
According to Rusconi, he wanted to showcase the diversity and beauty of NSW marble throughout his work.
Incredibly, no plans or drawings have ever been found, and it appears that the statue was created entirely by sight alone.
Known by many as a talented man, some of Rusconi’s other notable works include a marble stairway at Westminster Abbey in London.
The artist died in 1964 at the age of 90 and left the world with his legacy standing strong in his marble sculptures.
Rusconi was the sculptor of the famous Dog on the Tuckerbox.
– Emily Flint
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