This gift of a bronze cast sculpture is of a wild bull elephant that is sleeping and is the first in an intended edition of 10. The project is the foundation for cast the sleeping elephant trust, an organization dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and natural habitats. The artist sees the sleeping elephant as a proud messenger of wildlife, and an enduring symbol of the power and beauty of nature in an increasingly fragile and fractured world.

The sculpture was created by the Artist Mihail Simeonov, or Mihail, for the three donors: Kenya, Namibia and Nepal. He conceived the project in 1976 to recognize and safeguard wildlife and natural environments. He traveled to East Africa where, with Kenyan government support, he tranquilized the wild bull and then while it was sleeping, he cast the elephant. The process took two hours and the elephant rejoined his herd completely unharmed. The casts were then used to make the final model for bronze. 

At the unveiling, Secretary-General Kofi Annan thanked the member states and said that: “The sheer size of this creature humbles us. And so, it should. For it shows us that some things are bigger than we are. It tells us that the Earth is not ours, but a treasure we hold in trust for future generations.” 

He continued by saying that the elephant, “It teaches us that if our global village is to be truly desirable place for all of us on this planet, it must be guided by a wish to nurture and preserve, and not to threaten or destroy, the variety of life that gives it value.”