A tapestry depicting Picasso’s epic painting Guernica, which for 35 years had hung outside the entrance to the Security Council at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York has now been removed. The place where the painting hung is now empty, as the work’s owner Mr Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr. has requested its return.
Nelson A. Rockefeller is the son of former U.S. vice president and New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, who commissioned the Picasso tapestry. But now the loan has come to an end after 36 years. The committee is considering new options to replace the work.
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica is considered as one of his iconic paintings. The paintings depicts bombing of the Spanish city of Guernica on April 26, 1937 by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. It was the response to the horror brought by The Nazis. The painting, which was 25 foot long, became a symbol of anti-war causes of all kinds, and was used a protest image by activists during the Vietnam War.
In a letter obtained by AP, Maria Luiza Viotti, chief of staff of U.N. secretary-general Antonio Gutierres, wrote, “Mr. Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr., who owns the Guernica tapestry, recently notified the United Nations of his intention to retrieve it. Following his notification, the tapestry was returned to Mr. Rockefeller earlier this month.”
Nelson Rockefeller commissioned the tapestry version in 1955. It has become a key artwork within the U.N., and in 2003, it was famously covered while former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a presentation on the war against Iraq. In 2009, the work was exhibited in London for the reopening of the Whitechapel Gallery.