The official letter from Sarkozy states that the prestigious distinction recognizes Tsereteli’s merits and his devotion to France. As a result of his efforts, Tsereteli is now a Knight of the Legion of Honour.

As a matter of fact, Paris has been one of the major influences in the artist’s life. The city has never failed to inspire the Tbilisi-born artist and played perhaps a key role in Tsereteli’s life, much so thanks to the people he met there back in the 1960s, such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

Tsereteli is best known for his colossal public monuments which can be found almost anywhere in the world, from New York, Tokyo and Rome, to Damascus, Montevideo and Ulan Bator.

“To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” in New Jersey, US. Stands in direct view of the Statue of Liberty and the former World Trade Center in New York. Bronze, 30m tall.

Among Tsereteli’s works in France are his almost three-meter-high monument to Balzac, a monument to Pope John Paul II, and a replica of his Spanish composition “Birth of a New Man” in honor of Christopher Columbus.

The highly prestigious award, the Legion of Honor medal, whose motto is “Honour and Motherland” was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in the beginning of the 19th Century and has five levels of degree: Knight of the Legion of Honour; Officer of the Legion of Honour; Commander of the Legion of Honour; Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour.

Among Russian recipients of the award are: Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky; editor-in-chief of Echo of Moscow radio station Aleksey Venediktov; former Presidential Aide Sergey Yastrzhembsky; as well as Russia’s current Prime Minister and then-President Vladimir Putin; and the first President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.