Group MD Discovers Falklands Rose

Feb 13, 2018 | Article

During a recent trip to Buenos Aires, Uniserve Group Managing Director Iain Liddell, and wife Fiona, were amongst the first to handle one of the roses of peace crafted by famous Argentine goldsmith – Juan Carlos Pallarols.

Juan Carlos is known for crafting the presidential batons of Argentine presidents and the chalice of Pope Francis. His latest project – Two Roses For Peace – sees him fuse beautiful roses from bullets, pistols and airplane parts donated by families of Argentine and British soldiers involved in the Falkland Islands conflict.

Falklands War veterans, and families of those lost on both sides, have agreed to place one of the roses at a cemetery for Argentine soldiers and another at a cemetery for British soldiers in the islands.

Juan Carlos (left) hopes the roses will help to promote continued peace between his country and Britain. The nations fought a brief but bloody war in 1982 after Argentina invaded the South Atlantic archipelago.

He told Iain and Fiona when they visited his amazing Buenos Aires workshop “The idea is to transform the material of war into objects of art and peace. What I want is to fuse the hearts and love of the people – that will be the real success of all of this.”

He added “We have so many things in common with you – If we were to take out everything from Argentina that is influenced by the English, we’d be left very sad; we wouldn’t have football, polo, rugby, and rock! It’s better to be friends and not fight at all.”

Iain commented “Juan Carlos is a truly remarkable man and the visit to his workshop was a real highlight during our trip. It was an honour to be one of the first to hold such a beautifully crafted and well meant work of art, especially knowing the history and significance of the materials used to make it.”