John Lennon Bust in Sopron, Hungary

Sopron's John Lennon memorial is a copper bust, not a full statue. It stands in the courtyard of the Horváth József music school at Szélmalom utca 17, in the town in western Hungary. Budapest sculptor László Szlávics Jr. donated it for Lennon's 70th birthday, and it was unveiled on 2 October 2010.

A 1988 portrait turned into a bust

Szlávics first made a portrait of Lennon in 1988. In 2009 he reworked it into the bust that now stands in Sopron. It is made from hammered copper sheet and measures 77 by 35 by 26 centimetres. It sits on a limestone column 170 centimetres tall.

The sculptor gave the work to the school ahead of what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday. It was not his first gift there: in 2009 he had given the same school a Liszt sculpture. The Horváth József school is one of the oldest music schools in Hungary. The Köztérkép public art database, in a contributor's note, calls this the first bust of John Lennon made in Hungary.

The unveiling on 2 October 2010

The bust was unveiled at 10:00 on Saturday 2 October 2010, as part of Sopron's World Music Day events. It marked Lennon's 70th birthday and 30 years since his death. The former musician József Oravec gave the memorial speech, and deputy mayor Dr István Simon welcomed the guests. Teachers from the school, the Liszt Ferenc teachers' choir and the H2O Acoustic Rock Band performed, and the programme also listed the audience for "Come Together". In her speech the school's director said Lennon and the Beatles stand for youth.

Where exactly it stands

The bust is inside the school grounds, close to the Szélmalom utca entrance and next to the wall of the right-hand wing. One local paper's 2010 headline said it had been put "on the wall" of the school. Hungarian Wikipedia corrects this: it stands in the courtyard. Because it is on school property, whether you can walk in depends on the school. We found no published visiting rules.

The most recent description of the bust in place that we found is a Köztérkép entry updated in December 2020. We found no report that it has been moved or removed since.