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Tapestry of Picasso's Guernica to be displayed in Britain

The full-size replica of the painting, which depicts the 1937 bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, is to be loaned to the London gallery and shown from April 5.

It currently hangs at the entrance to the Security Council room at the UN headquarters in New York. The UN was criticised in February 2003 after it covered the tapestry with a blue curtain when Colin Powell, then the US Secretary of State, addressed the council on Iraq, a month before the US-led invasion.

It said the curtain provided "an appropriate background for the cameras", but critics claimed that Mr Powell's advisers had intervened to prevent his speech being given in front of a pacifist or anti-war backdrop.

The original was painted by Pablo Picasso within weeks of the bombing by German planes, which killed hundreds of civilians. It has come to commonly represent the horrors of war.

Goshka Macuga, a Polish-born London artist, has created an installation featuring the tapestry for the re-opening of the Whitechapel gallery, following a £13.5m expansion project...

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)