The Telegraph quoted a British Embassy spokesman, as saying: “It was lent for the first term of office of President Bush. When the President was elected for his second and final term, the loan was extended until January 2009. The new President has decided not to continue this loan and the bust has now been returned. It is on display at the Ambassador’s Residence.”
The bronze bust is a Sir Jacob Epstein creation worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
When British officials offered to let Obama continue hanging it in the White House, his reply was ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’
Obama openly cited the words and works of his hero Abraham Lincoln and now since taking over the presidency, a bust of Lincoln sits in the Oval Office.
The rejection of the bust has made some British officials nervous over how much influence the UK can wield with the new regime in Washington, and may force Gordon Brown to think about offering an alternative symbol of Anglo-American camaraderie when he visits Washington to meet Obama for the first time since he became President.