Torched... and you still can't see Saddam's wife

A sculpture named after Saddam Hussein's first wife and built of oil drums, cardboard boxes and sticky tape has been destroyed in a fire.

Only two months after the £2,000 work was unveiled in Holland Park it was reduced to a charred shell.

Artist Graham Hudson said the piece - called Sajida Talfah after the Iraqi dictator's former partner - was installed in Napoleon Garden to represent the Iraq war. Critics were outraged the beauty spot had been marred by a memorial to someone connected to a murderous despot.

Hudson's gallery, Rokeby, said the sculpture, which passers-by often thought was a pile of rubbish, was destroyed. A spokesman for the Fire Brigade confirmed they were called to the scene of the fire after 7.30pm yesterday.

Officers are investigating the cause of the blaze.