![Vincenzo Vela's Victims of Labour memorial in Airolo.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titelbild-vela-300x225.jpg)
Victims of Labour – a memorial that broke the mould
Artists were among the many to draw inspiration from the opening of the Gotthard railway tunnel 140 years ago. Prominent Ticino sculptor Vincenzo Vela created a contemporaneous memorial to those lost during its construction, entitled Victims of Labour. This key work was not particularly well received at the time, however.
![Richard Kissling’s plaster model of Alfred Escher, circa 1883.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/skulptur-escher-222x300.jpg)
![Bronze cast of Vela's Victims of Labour at the Galleria nazionale d’arte moderna in Rome.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/vela-bronzeskulptur-300x197.jpg)
![Workers in front of the Gotthard tunnel. Graphic reproduction, circa 1875.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/arbeiter-druckgrafik-300x176.jpg)
![Portrait of Vincenzo Vela.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/vinzenzo-vela-223x300.jpg)
![How Vincenzo Vela envisaged Napoleon's final days. The work originates from the 1860s.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/napoleon-2-225x300.jpg)
A prophet in his own land
![The entrance to the Gotthard tunnel in Airolo on a colourised postcard from 1893.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/airolo-tunnel-postkarte-216x300.jpg)