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The Insider's Connection

United Nations

Lost Pieces of the Berlin Wall in New York City

Where are pieces of history hidden in plain sight? The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to divide the communist East side from the democratic West side. The massive concrete border was 12 feet tall and over 100 miles long, a harrowing reminder of extreme political unrest, ideological differences, and a nation at war. In the early 1980s, French artist Thierry Noir began painting the West side of the wall near his home. His hope, he said, was to “demystify” the wall by painting large, simple, colorful figures. Artists from all over the city, and then all over the world, joined in throughout the next 8 years to cover the concrete canvas in art. When the wall was demolished in 1989, it was broken into over 40,000 sections. Most of it was repurposed, used as raw materials in German reconstruction…

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July 1, 2019