Krippel’s bust portrays Atatürk with folded arms at a Kars museum. (AA Photo)
A museum in Türkiye’s eastern province of Kars preserves a century-old bust of the country’s founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, recovered from a school storeroom after its whereabouts remained unknown for years.
Austrian sculptor Heinrich Krippel created the half-length work, also described as a torso. The Caucasian Front War History Museum has displayed it since 2025, following instructions from Kars Governor Ziya Polat.
Sent to Kars in 1926, the bust stood outside the municipal building for about 35 years before its removal in the 1960s. It later stood in the garden of Namık Kemal Primary School before disappearing from public view. Researchers eventually located it in a storeroom at Atatürk Girls’ Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School.
Krippel arrived in Istanbul on June 7, 1925, after an invitation to create sculptures of Atatürk. He traveled to Ankara and met the leader on June 9, when Atatürk posed for his work.
Kars Archaeology and Ethnography Museum Director Kaptan Zeynel Abidin Yaşlı said the sculptor reproduced Atatürk’s proportions, body contours, eyebrows and facial expressions. Krippel produced four sculptures between 1925 and 1927, with one sent to Kars, a city Yaşlı described as symbolic.
“The sculpture on display is of great importance for Kars,” Yaşlı said. The work bears characteristics of sculpture from the republic’s early years and forms part of the city’s cultural heritage.
Yaşlı said the bust was kept in the girls’ vocational school’s storeroom after its removal from outside the municipal building. The matter came to public attention in 2025, leading to its exhibition at the war history museum on the governor’s instructions.
The idea of creating an Atatürk statue predated the republic but took shape after its proclamation, Yaşlı said. Istanbul Mayor Emin Erkul invited Krippel to Istanbul during a visit to Hungary, beginning the process that brought the artist to Türkiye.
