I’ve never been a huge fan of Marx’s tomb in Highgate Cemetery. It’s designed in the classic Stalinist tradition to express, as its sculptor Laurence Bradshaw said, “the dynamic force of his intellect and the breadth and vision and power of his personality, along with a feeling of energy and endurance and dedication to purpose”. Karl Marx: superhuman, could be its subtext.
But the vandals who attacked the monument this week did not damage the granite plinth or the bronze bust. Instead they attacked the original, family gravestone set in the middle of it. This small marble slab was commissioned for Marx’s wife, Jenny, upon her death in 1881, and Karl’s name, plus the names of his daughter, grandson and one-time lover, were later added – while respectable London quietly forgot them.
Content from our partners
