The Offerings of Peace and The Offerings of War

Peace carries the Greek theatre masks of Tragedy and Comedy representing "the arts" and "plenty", while War holds a staff, a bundle of swords and broken spear shafts.

"[4] In 1903 Bayes was commissioned to design a bronze relief panel for the façade of the New South Wales Art Gallery.

[5] In 1915, after the outbreak of World War I, Bayes submitted to the National Art Gallery of New South Walesa "a pair of 18 inch bronzed plaster figures entitled Offerings of Peace and Offerings of War and the following year he received the commission to produce large bronze versions to flank the museum's main entrance.

[5][9] Full size plaster statues were finally completed in 1919,[9] cast in England in 1923, shipped separately to Sydney in 1924 (first War in February,[10] then Peace in June[11]) and erected in 1926.

However, once the statues had been delivered, the gallery trustees decided instead to install the works on free-standing plinths halfway down either side the length of the facade.

Alongside the steps the figures would have been set at an angle of forty-five degrees, so that people going in could obtain a side view of both of them as if they were leaping out from each corner.

[18] From the outside, War and peace and in between, 2009, wrapped in plastic sheeting and temporary building materials, resembled the scaffolding that encased the sculptures during restoration; but inside, a different revitalisation had occurred.