Braveheart Scottish political landscape in the mid to late 1990s. In 1997, a 12-ton sandstone statue depicting Mel Gibson as William Wallace in "Braveheart" was placed in the car park of the Wallace Monument near Stirling, Scotland. The statue, which was the work of Tom Church, a monumental mason from Brechin, included the word "Braveheart" on Wallace's shield. The installation became the cause of much controversy; one local resident stated that it was wrong to "desecrate the main memorial to Wallace with a lump of crap". In 1998, someone wielding a hammer vandalized the statue's face. After repairs were made, the
Stirling torcs £462,000 by the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel, and the crown stated it would allocate the torcs to National Museums Scotland if the museum made an ex-gratia payment of £462,000 to the finder, David Booth; National Museums Scotland had until April 2011 to raise the required sum of money. By March 2011 the amount was raised by a public appeal and significant grants by the Art Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and the hoard was acquired. Stirling torcs The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which