UNESCO Art Collection

The UNESCO Collection was born with the creation of the Organisation's Headquarters in 1958, when a series of 12 commissioned works were integrated into the architectural project. The greatest artists of their time were invited to contribute to the project of a house for the Organization's Member States. Rufino Tamayo, Isamu Noguchi, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Josep Artigas, Karel Appel, Afro, Roberto Matta, Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Brassaï, and Jean Arp created for the young UNESCO monumental artworks inspired by its mandate. A second series of commissions during the creation of the Miollis site added Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man I and Ellsworth Kelly's Blue Green to the collection, as well as an installation by Jesús Rafael Soto and Eduardo Chillida's Comb in the Wind VI.

Since its creation, UNESCO has received donations from institutions and private entities. After these two series of historical commissions, the rest of the collection was constituted in its majority of donations from Member States and artists.