Mystery of Oxford University's statues missing for 200 years

A university college is appealing for help to find three missing statues that once stood atop its chapel tower. The statues have not been seen for more than 200 years but University of Oxford's Trinity College hopes they may have ended up in a garden, outbuilding or even a public space. For hundreds of years four statues have formed part of the Oxford skyline, overlooking Broad Street. They represent astronomy, geometry, medicine and theology. However, while working on plans to replace the weather-beaten statues, the college's archivist, Clare Hopkins, discovered the four currently standing on the building are not the originals. Uncovering the statue's history, Hopkins found the 9ft-tall women were originally installed when the chapel tower was built between 1691 and 1694. However, in the early 1820s, the statues were removed and replaced with new figures by an Oxford stonemason. While the statue, representing medicine, was placed in a garden of Trinity College, the fate of the other three figures remains a mystery. Hopkins said: "The statues on the chapel tower are such an iconic part of Trinity College and it is really frustrating that we have these gaps in their documented histo