ANY PORT the size of Durban becomes the recipient of strange cargo from time to time, but what was offloaded from the SafBank ship Commander last week, on her final voyage for the line before going on charter to Fu Hai, was different from most - a huge gilt and bronze statue depicting none other than Julius Caesar himself, along with four splendid horses.
The statue, which was sculpted in Texas at a cost of US$370 000, was on its way to the new Caesar's casino at Jet Park outside Johannesburg, where it is to become a focal point in the main entrance foyer. So often such unusual cargoes are kept hidden from sight and dealt with in the utmost secrecy, but on this occasion instructions given to Natro Freight, the company appointed to handle the discharge and inland transport of the statue, were to keep it exposed as though on display and not covered up, so that as many people as possible could see it on the long road journey inland.
The heavy load, weighing in at 8.5 tons of pure bronze coloured in gilt measured 9 metres by 4,3 m wide and another 4,3 m high.
Weighing in at 8,5 tons, the bronze statue of Caesar and his horses is readied for the final leg of its journey to Caesar's in Jet Park
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