Fernando Botero

The opulent figures and objects of the 81-year-old Colombian artist Fernando Botero are finally back in Munich - on canvas, on paper and as sculptures. After 1997, 2007 and 2009, Galerie Thomas is now presenting another exhibition of his works. The works of the best-known contemporary South American artist have a high recognition value and are known all over the world. Holidaymakers know his monumental sculpture "Liegende Frau" at the airport of Palma de Mallorca. At the Amerigo Vespucci airport in Florence, too, a sculpture greets travellers - suitably that of a bird.

The most beautiful cities in the world have already invited the artist to present his giant sculptures in their squares and magnificent boulevards, be it Paris on the Champs Elysées, New York on Park Avenue, Florence, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Singapore and Venice along the Grand Canal.

In 2009 Botero donated to his native Colombia the art that he himself had missed as a young man: Nearly 200 paintings and sculptures worth $100 million from his own art collection, including works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wifredo Lam, and Edgar Degas. They can be seen today in the Museo de Antioquia in Medellín and the Donacion Botero in Bogota. In Medellín an entire district was named after him: the Ciudad Botero, where many of his sculptures are placed.