Catherine Piekos and her siblings are on a mission. They want to track down a lost sculpture made by their mother Audrey Jenkins, which went missing after it was loaned to Kent County Council for an exhibition in Maidstone in the 1950s.

The wooden sculpture depicts two women embracing face to face and was made by Miss Jenkins when she was studying at The Royal College of Art.

It was lent to the council sometime around 1958 and was displayed in the health department.

Miss Jenkins' life was derailed shortly after when she discovered she was pregnant by a fellow student.

Mrs Piekos said: "That would not be such a problem in this day and age, but you can imagine how it was for my mum in the '50s - the huge stigma attached to being an unmarried mother.

"Her world was turned upside down and her friends had to help her to finish her degree by organising her body of work for her final student exhibition - and some things got left behind, like her carving."

The child, named Olwyn, was brought up by Miss Jenkins' sister.

Miss Jenkins moved to a flat in Borstal near the M2 motorway Medway Bridge and worked as an art teacher at Fort Pitt School in Chatham.

Later she moved to Nigeria to become an art teacher at the Victoria Ladies College. While there she was responsible for painting the country's coat of arms above the national library building in Lagos.

She also met and married Peter Heavens in 1969. The couple had two children together, Andrew and Catherine, and lived abroad in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong until Mr Heavens retired in the late '80s when they returned to England.

She died in March 2016 from cancer, her husband died two years later.

Mrs Piekos, from Walderslade Woods, said: "Mum carried on with her art throughout her life.

"We all have pieces of her artwork dotted around our houses today, pen and ink drawings, wood carvings and clay sculptures. The clay head of my dad keeps an eye on us from the top of my dining room cupboard.

"My mum had a bit of a breakdown after my sister was born, which how come the sculpture was never collected.

"But even when she was in her 70s she often used to talk about it.

"I've made inquiries before through Facebook and the last positive sighting I have is by a lady who used to dust it when it was in the reception area of the KCC architecture department at their Springfield offices in the 1970s.

"Another chap thinks he may have seen it in the planning department in the 1980s.

"We'd dearly like to know what happened to it. Did it get thrown out when KCC left their Springfield offices?"

The sculpture is titled The Visitation. It is made of mahogany, dated 1957 and is 5ft tall.

Anyone who can help should contact Mrs Piekos by email to catherine.piekos19@gmail.com

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