Wellington gallery says Ronnie van Hout’s Quasi statue ‘was hated by the people but turned out to be a great tragic-romantic hero’. It heads to Australia next

A giant sculpture of a hand with a disapproving face that has ominously presided over Wellington’s civic square for five years will soon wave its final goodbye to the city, prompting relief from the capital’s mayor and sorrow from those who came to love him.

The work, called Quasi, is by Melbourne-based New Zealand artist Ronnie van Hout, who made the “partial self-portrait” to sit in his home town of Christchurch after the devastating 2011 earthquake. The polystyrene and resin sculpture is also a reference to Quasimodo, from Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.