I believe this is the bronze sculpture of the founder Calouste Gulbenkian in the courtyard garden.The head-office is located in Lisbon. The large premises, opened in 1969, comprise the head-office itself and the museum, and were designed by Ruy Athouguia, Pedro Cid, and Alberto Pessoa. In addition to the areas occupied by the Foundation's management and various departments, the premises include a large auditorium, a space for temporary exhibitions, a congress area with auditoriums and other rooms, as well as a large building that houses the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Art Library. The entire complex is set in the Gulbenkian Park, which was designed by Ribeiro Telles. In 1983, the Modern Art Centre, consisting of a museum and an education centre, was opened at one end of the park. The Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (a science institute) is situated inside a multi-building complex in Oeiras (outskirts of Lisbon), near the palace of the Marquis of Pombal. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation also has a delegation in the United Kingdom (UK Branch) and a centre in Paris (the Calouste Gulbenkian Cultural Centre). The Gulbenkian Orchestra is one of the major orchestras in Portugal.
Partex, a Portuguese oil extraction company, is fully owned by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Museu Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum) is a museum in Lisbon, Portugal, containing a collection of ancient, and some modern art. The museum was founded according to Calouste Gulbenkian's last will, in order to accommodate and display Gulbenkian's art collection belonging now to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation...
The permanent exhibition galleries are distributed in chronological and geographical order to create two independent circuits within the overall tour.
The first circuit highlights Oriental art and Classical art on display in the Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian, Persian art from Islamic period, Armenian and Far Eastern art.
UK Branch
The mission statement[1] of the UK Branch states that the foundation aims:
- to help change people’s perception of each other by providing opportunities for improving understanding through culture and between cultures...
- to help build relationships and reduce social exclusion in order to assist individuals, families and communities to fulfil their potential and contribute to society, particularly focusing on: the young in school, relationships between young and old and those most at risk of dropping out of society...
- to support imaginative interventions that contribute towards the protection of the environment, and explore how environmental change affects the way we live...
- to support exceptional ideas and unusual partnerships between people and organisations that might not otherwise come together.
The foundation publishes books on a range of topics, including arts and educational policy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian_Foundation
