The removal by the Rockefeller family of a tapestry installed more than three decades ago at the entrance to the UN Security Council and which represented the work Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, caused a stir among diplomats and senior officials, AFP reports.
After the organization announced on Thursday the removal of the work by its owner, Nelson Rockefeller Jr., UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric lamented the decision on Twitter, as did many diplomats. “It is really sad. This wall without the tapestry is meaningless. This work, when installed elsewhere, will lose much of its value,” wrote Dujarric.
The presence of the tapestry, which presidents, ministers and ambassadors regularly passed through the Security Council, was intended to draw attention to the tragedy of war. Guernica, one of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces is considered one of the works of art, if not the work of art, with the most powerful anti-war message.
The painting is on display at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and in the Basque village of Guernica, which was bombed by Nazi forces in 1937 that inspired the work, there is also a mural to reproduce it.
The announcement of the withdrawal surprised UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said Dujarric, who said he had received no explanation from the Rockefeller family.
“The secretary general and others tried to keep the work here, but failed,” said the spokesman, at a press conference. “This tapestry was not only a moving reminder of the horrors of war, but, because of where it was, it was also a witness to a lot of history that has unfolded outside the Security Council since 1985.”
Commissioned in 1955 by Nelson Rockefeller, later governor of New York and vice president of the USA, and woven by the studio of French Jacqueline de La Baume-Dürrbach, the tapestry was ceded to the UN in 1984.
Presidents, ministers and ambassadors who participated in the Security Council meetings passed the play towards the meeting room of the most important United Nations body, responsible for maintaining peace in the world.
The Rockefeller family donated the land on which the United Nations headquarters was built. In 2009, due to renovation works on the building, the tapestry was transported to the Rockefeller Foundation, where it remained until 2013. The Rockefeller family did not comment on the decision to retrieve the piece.
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