When ABN Amro finished moving into its impressive new offices in Spitalfields on the edge of the City of London last month, something was missing. It's true the building has the vast trading floors, glass lifts and state-of-the art trading technology that every big institution likes to flaunt. It also has a rather swanky foyer, a full three floors high, from which escalators lead up to the trading floors.
But what that grand foyer lacks is a piece of artwork to match the great steel blob that ABN's deadly rival Deutsche has placed in the visitors' area to its own new building in London Wall. At the moment all the Dutch bank has to offer is a rather strange wall-mounted sculpture that looks like a series of partly melted rubbish bins painted different colours.
That, it turns out, is exactly what it is. Traders at the bank are less than impressed with "the bins". And health and safety officials fear that the sculpture would give off noxious fumes in the event of a fire.