Calouste Gulbenkian - Lisboa, Portugal
Posted by: Torgut
N 38° 44.238 W 009° 09.353
29S E 486452 N 4287636
This statue stands on the grounds of the Foundation named after its founder: Calouste Gulbenkian himself.
Waymark Code: WMFCQ7
Location: Lisboa, Portugal
Date Posted: 09/29/2012
Views: 7
From Wikipedia:
"Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (23 March 1869 - 20 July 1955) was an Armenian businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum reserves of the Middle East available to Western development. By the end of his life he had become one of the world's wealthiest individuals and his art acquisitions considered one of the greatest private collections."
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His importance in the Portuguese cultural life in the middle 20th Century was considerable. He created an important Foundation and supported several cultural projects. The Lisbon's planetarium is also named after Calouste Gulbenkian.
In this statue, standing on the grounds of Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, near one of the entrances to the Museum (one of the most popular and significant in Portugal), made of bronze, he is siting with a huge eagle carved in stone behind him. Actually the scale of Gulbenkian and of the eagle differ. The man, sitting on a chair with normal day to day life clothes, is just staring at the horizon, wih a slightly bigger than real-life scale, while the eagle is huge (see proportions in the pictures).