Leopards transported by Tigers

Some of the most spectacular animals from Africa’s fauna were transported to England as bronze sculptures recently – instead of as stuffed exhibits, as used to be the case. The logistics enterprise Tigers was in charge of handling the artist Bruce Little’s works. Bruce Little from South Africa is a sculptor who works mainly in bronze, with his homeland’s wild animals one of his ­favourite subjects for depiction. Little recently exhibited some of his sculptures in the Mall Galleries in London. Thus the massive and heavy works of art had to be transported from Cape Town (South ­Africa) to the British capital. The Hong Kong-based logistician ­Tigers was put in charge of mana­ging the operation. The company already carried out a transport task for ­Little a year ago, when it made sure that a ­sculpture of a lion, weighing approximately 5 t, reached England without a scratch. The figures it was asked to ­handle this time were substantially lighter, but instead there was a few more of them than on the last job. A total of 29 sculptures arrived in Tigers’ branch office at ­London ­Heathrow airport in a maritime container. The smallest figurine, of a harvest mouse, was a mere 10 cm high; the largest sculpture, of a leo­pard, was 4.5 m long and tipped the scales at approximately 250 kg. Tigers employees repacked the works at Heathrow and loaded them into trucks for the next leg to the gallery. Little himself was on site to make sure everything went to his satisfaction. Tigers carried out the customs formalities too, making sure the animals were registered as temporary imports that may be sold. Tigers had previously established that this was the most cost-effective solution.