"The First Jewels" – Botanical Garden, Montréal, Québec

The rose garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden houses a bronze statue entitled "The First Jewels." It depicts a young girl holding a necklace in her hands. Created in 1973, the statue is the work of Alice Winant (1928-1989), a Romanian-born Canadian artist who survived the Nazi concentration camps. Her husband gave the statue to the City of Montreal. The necklace in the girl's hands was stolen in 2010, but the artist’s husband supplied a photo which allowed the City to replace it. Ideally placed among the rose beds, "The First Jewels" captures the whimsical mood of a young woman, but there’s an unmistakable air of sadness too.