Broken Chair Sculpture, Geneva (must see)

Few monuments or statues are as evocative as the Broken Chair of Geneva. It is a wooden sculpture of a chair with a broken left leg. It is nearly 40 feet high, weighs 11,000 pounds, and stands in the Nations Square (Place des Nations) in Geneva. It is meant as a symbol for peace and a protest against the use of land mines and cluster bombs.

Paul Vermeulen, director of Handicap International, Switzerland, came up with the idea for an anti-land mine art project. The project was intended to get nations to sign the Ottawa Treaty of 1997. The chair was planned as a three-month exhibit. Except for removal to allow renovation of the square in 2005, it has stood in place to this day.

The Broken Chair was designed by Swiss artist Daniel Berset and built by carpenter Louis Geneve. The Ottawa Treaty was ultimately signed by 162 nations. There are 34 hold-outs. Among the hold-outs are the USA, Russia and China.