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The ''Throne of Weapons'' is a sculpture created by Cristóvão Canhavato out of disused weapons. It has been owned by the British Museum since 2002.〔 It has been called the Museum's most "eloquent object" and it may have been shown in a wider variety of ways than any other object. ==Description== The sculpture was created by a sculptor who was born Cristóvão Estavão Canhavato in Zavala in southern Mozambique.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.africaserver.nl/nucleo/eng/index.html )〕 Canhavato works under the name of Kester as part of a co-operative called ''Associação Núcleo de Arte''. Kester was born in 1966 and his artistic education took place at the artist's collective—although he already had a knowledge of engineering construction. The artists collective was supported by Christian Aid and another Christian group led by Bishop Dinis Sengulane as part of an organisation called "Transformacao de Armas em Enxadas" or "Transforming Arms into Tools".〔 The throne has been signed by the artist, but as the curators have noted, the throne has also been "signed" by termites who have traditionally damaged African wooden sculptures.〔 Kester, the artist, points out the smiling faces that he has included in his work even though his relatives were injured by weapons like these. At the top of the right hand rifle butt is a human face, but the face was only "found" by the artist. The holes and marks are the remains of where a strap had been attached when it was carried by its owner. The symbol Kester created was the gothic shape at the back which is intended to symbolise a church.〔 The "Transforming Arms into Tools" organisation supplied the decommissioned weapons to Kester and his group for this and many other related pieces of sculpture.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.africaserver.nl/nucleo/eng/index.html )〕 The guns, mostly AK-47 assault rifles, were manufactured in Portugal, Eastern Europe and North Korea. The H&K G3 rifles used to form the backrest were designed in Germany and manufactured in Portugal.〔 They were widely used throughout West Africa. The Russian contribution of the iconic AK-47 rifle is important to the design—an AK-47, it, a hoe, and a book still feature on Mozambique's flag. On the front of the chair is a North Korean manufactured AKM rifle and a single PPSh-43 submachinegun, and the weapons that make up the seat were made in Poland and Czechoslovakia. The weapons in Mozambique arise from a civil war that was funded by South Africa and Rhodesia and involved emigrants from their apartheid regimes.〔 One million people were killed and the war only ended when the Soviet Union collapsed and the funding ended.〔 Kofi Annan said when this chair was being discussed, "We don't manufacture weapons, we sometimes don't even have money to buy them. How do we get these weapons to kill each other?"〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Throne of Weapons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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