Famed tapestry of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ back at UN headquarters after year-long absence
- Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is considered by numerous art critics as perhaps the most powerful anti-war painting in history
- The tapestry of the painting was re-hung on Saturday outside the Security Council after a year-long absence that angered and dismayed many UN diplomats and staff
The famous tapestry of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, which is considered by numerous art critics as perhaps the most powerful anti-war painting in history, returned to its place of honour at the United Nations on Saturday after a year-long absence that angered and dismayed many UN diplomats and staff.
The tapestry of the painting, woven by Atelier J de la Baume-Durrbach, was re-hung on Saturday outside the Security Council, the UN’s most powerful body charged with ensuring international peace and security. Since February 2021, the yellow wall where it had hung had been empty.
The tapestry was commissioned in 1955 by former US vice-president and New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and offered to the UN on loan in 1984.
The Rockefeller family donated the land to build the UN complex after the world body was founded on the ashes of World War II, in the words of the UN Charter, “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.”
When the United Nations headquarters was undergoing a major renovation starting in 2009, the tapestry was returned to the Rockefeller Foundation for safekeeping. It was reinstalled in September 2013 when the renovations were completed.
Early last year, Nelson A Rockefeller, junior, the son of the late vice-president and governor who owns the Guernica tapestry, notified the United Nations of his intention to retrieve it. The UN returned it to him in February 2021.
Rockefeller said in a statement Saturday that the tapestry was being returned on loan to the United Nations, and he intends to donate the work to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the future.