This painting is titled The Heart of the Andes (Corazón de los Andes). It has a beautiful interplay of colors and forms and depicts the famous South American mountain range. Artist Nemesio Antunez painted in a contemporary style and successfully conveyed a feeling of overwhelming power. Using a rich variety of colors, he portrayed the immense diversity of the mountain’s mineral wealth, such as copper, silver, gold, precious and semi-precious stones, and others. The mountains have contrasting colors and the lakes are expressed with strong and radiant blues. 

The mural is like a poetic interpretation of dramatic geology. There are volcanoes throbbing with power, pressed bodies of water, and undulating banks of clouds. Antunez’s painting The Heart of the Andes successfully expresses the basic terrestrial elements.

The Heart of the Andes was commissioned by the Chilean Government to offer as a gift to the United Nations. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Gabriel Valdés, presented the gift to United Nations Secretary-General U Thant in a ceremony. Minister Valdés said that the painting testified to the great admiration and support the people of Chile had for the United Nations and its purposes. In response Secretary-General U Thant said the painting was an “expression in poetic and imaginative form of the essence and geography of the Latin American continent” and “its style and its scale are well suited to the spirit of the architecture of its house.”