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Thu 11 Nov 2008Spaniards see red over cost of UN's 'Sistine Chapel'
WHEN KING Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia - accompanied by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and other dignitaries - unveiled a dramatic work of art in the UN Palais des Nations in Geneva this week, they also unleashed a row over costs and use of aid and development funds.
Few doubt the artistic merits of the 1,400 square metre domed ceiling in the human rights hall which the Majorca artist Miquel Barceló has turned into a dramatic cave dripping in multicoloured blobs of paint and stalactites which has been described as the Sistine Chapel of the 21st century.
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