London, England: Bela Bartok Statue

OK, what exactly is a statue of Bela Bartok doing in the Kensington district of London? You'd expect this in Budapest in his native Hungary, where he has one too, but here? 

Bartok, it turns out, enjoyed visiting London. He first arrived in 1922, and stayed with the same couple of friends in the years after that. In the 1930s, Bartok didn't like what the Nazis were doing in Germany, and he refused to play there. His views didn't go over well, and when World War II started he fled Hungary to go to America. Bartok died in New York in 1945, so he didn't quite live to see Germany defeated. 

Bartok was buried in State of New York until 1988. By then the politics of Hungary had changed, and his body was returned home for another burial. Bela finally was next to his wife, who had died in Hungary in 1982. 

The statue was unveiled in 2004. It is right by a London Underground station, and it's nice to see him greeting the passengers.