(CNN Español) – The tapestry ‘Guernica’ that hung outside the UN Security Council for more than 35 years is no longer there.
The Rockefeller family had lent the tapestry of Picasso’s famous painting to the UN in 1984, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told CNN in a statement. Recently, Nelson Rockefeller Jr., the current owner, “notified the United Nations of its intention to get it back,” Dujarric said.
The agency returned the carpet to the owner days ago.
The carpet has been hanging outside the UN Security Council hall since 1985, said Dujarric, who confirmed that council members have been notified and that alternative options for that site will be evaluated.
According to information from the UN, Nelson A. Rockefeller commissioned the tapestry in 1955, which declares that it is a reproduction of the painting (currently on display at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid) made under the supervision of Picasso in the studio of J. de la Baume-Dürrbach in the south of France.
The Rockefellers were the ones who donated the land on the east side of Manhattan, where the UN is located. The United Nations spokesman’s statement does not explain the reason for Nelson Rockefeller Jr. to request the return of the carpet.
The Rockefeller family founded the renowned Rockefeller Foundation for Philanthropy in the United States in 1913.
The ‘Guernica’, symbol of the horror of war
The ‘Guernica’ was painted by the Spanish Pablo Picasso in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), according to the information available on the Museo Reina Sofía website. Picasso painted the painting in Paris after the news of the bombing of this Basque city by German planes in April 1937. The museum explains, however, that the sketches and the painting do not represent a specific event “but, on the contrary, general accusation against the barbarism and terror of war. ».
In fact, the painting was a foretaste of the horror other countries would experience years later during World War II.
The ‘Guernica’ is not only Picasso’s most famous painting, but also one of the most famous in the world and one of the most searched on Google.
The original painting remained in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for decades, while Francisco Franco ruled Spain. In 1981 he returned to the European country.
With information from CNN’s Richard Roth.