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Please note that this statue has been sawn off its pedestal and stolen.

In the middle of a narrow street in Scheveningen stands a statue of a girl. High above her head she holds a wheel like a trophy in her hands. It is the 'Monument to the Wheel' by artist Rob Pleysier. Unfortunately, the annals do not mention any explicit reason why this particular spot is an ode to the most important invention of mankind. It is possible that the sculpture had already been purchased as part of the Fine Arts Programme and that it was eventually put to good use here.

The shape of the wheel resembles a rudder and this fact is, of course, always appropriate in a fishing village. After all, Werfstraat is named after the ship carpentry yard that was located here around 1900.

Pleysier is an artist originally from The Hague. He grew up in Indonesia. After the Second World War, he was trained in The Hague by typical Hague teachers such as Dirk Bus and Henri van Haaren. A number of his works can be found in the city. Most of them are girl figures, such as the 'Meermin' and 'Joy' from 1962.

Monument to the wheel', like some of his other sculptures, is made of sterite, a synthetic material 'invented' by Pleysier, to which ground bronze is added. The process is the artist's secret and its use will therefore probably disappear in time. That will not happen with the wheel. The invention of the wheel resulted in an irreversible change in our existence. That is worthy of a monument.