Lara Croft statue finds temporary home at the city’s Museum of Making

A nine-foot statue of Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft which was bought through an online campaign arrived in Derby this week – and has been given a temporary home.

The statue has been sited on the ground floor of Derby Museums’ Museum of Making following its journey up from a storage facility in London.

It is expected to stay there for a number of weeks before it is moved to Derby City Council’s Derby Market Hall, where it will take pride of place in its “forever home” – a custom-designed display on the balcony at the Osnabrück Square end of the building.

The statue’s arrival came just in time to enable the 400 fans travelling to the city’s sixth Tomb Raider Day, which takes place at QUAD on Saturday, to come and see it.

Dr Alex Rock, director of commercial and operations at Derby Museums, said: “At the Museum of Making, we’re passionate about telling the story of making and creativity across the history of our pioneering city.

“Lara Croft is one of Derby’s most famous exports – made in Derby and celebrated worldwide.

“The response to the crowdfunding campaign has been incredible, and we’re delighted to be presenting this sneak preview of the Lara Croft statue before she finds her forever home at Derby Market Hall.”

The fibreglass statue was last on public display outside Tomb Raider: The LIVE Experience at Camden Market in London, until the attraction closed in 2023.

More than 200 fans and supporters from around the world pledged £33,314 through a Kickstarter campaign to buy her, with Derby City Council providing grant funding for her installation and display.

The campaign was led by Tomb Raider fan Luke Earle, who organises Tomb Raider Day every year.

Luke said: “Seeing Lara arrive in Derby, the city where she was created, is a dream come true for every fan who backed the campaign, and we’re really grateful to the museum for making sure that everyone who is coming to the event can visit her while her permanent home is being prepared.

“It’s long been an ambition of mine to get a statue of Lara installed in Derby and to have achieved that in time for Tomb Raider Day, in her 30th anniversary year, makes it even more special.”

The arrival of the statue has added another destination to the list of places Tomb Raider fans seek out when they come to Derby, including Lara Croft Way, her pavement star in Iron Gate and 55 Ashbourne Road – where Core Design, the studio that created the game, was based 30 years ago.

She has also arrived in time for an exhibition called Lara Croft: 30 Years On – From Derby to Global Icon, which is taking place at Pickford’s House in Friar Gate and features hundreds of items of merchandise from Luke’s collection and elsewhere.

Tomb Raider Day is the only event of its kind in the world and was first held in 2021.

It attracts a healthy crowd every year, thanks to the ongoing interest in Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, which is one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, with more than 100 million copies sold.

The Tomb Raider game franchise has also spawned three films, starring Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander, and an animated series, and Lara is set to return to the screen in a live-action Amazon Prime Video series starring Sophie Turner, expected next year.

Lara Croft also holds several Guinness World Records, including best-selling videogame heroine and most magazine covers for a videogame character, and was voted the most iconic video game character of all time to mark the 20th BAFTA Games Awards in 2024.