Minute sale

A pin-head sized replica of the Lloyd's Building in London will be auctioned inside the headquarters of the insurance market later. Sculptor Willard Wigan, of Birmingham, took four months to create the scale version from white gold and platinum.

The model of the building in Leadenhall Street sits on a pin head and can only be viewed through a microscope. It is being sold by the David Lloyd Gallery, which acquired a 70-piece collection by Mr Wigan this year.

Other works in the collection, which Mr Lloyd has insured for £11.2m, include the Statue of Liberty in the eye of a needle, Marilyn Munroe on a diamond, Bart Simpson and a Harley Davidson.

Mr Wigan, 50, said: "This has been the most difficult piece I have ever made. The precision needed to ensure that the micro-sculpture is entirely to scale and proportion placed an incredible physical and mental demand on me."

Architect of the Lloyd's Building Lord Rogers said: "Designing the actual building itself was an intricate challenge, but to see it recreated in such minuscule proportions and with so much detail is quite unbelievable. "I had to look through the microscope several times to check my eyes weren't deceiving me."