‘Happy birthday’: Eiffel Tower pays tribute to UNESCO

FILE PHOTO: International leaders pose for a family picture during the 75th anniversary celebrations of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, November 12, 2021. Julien de Rosa/ Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

PARIS — Paris paid tribute to UNESCO with an Eiffel Tower light show on Friday to celebrate the 75th birthday of the United Nations’ cultural and scientific agency.

In a sign of the French capital’s friendship towards the organisation it has hosted since 1946, the tower displayed the words “75 years” alongside the UNESCO logo, a stylized Greek temple and “symbol of hope for the creation of a peaceful world,” according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The light show was part of a wider ceremony which included the visits of over 20 heads of state and a projection of works by the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado at the body’s headquarters.

The agency, founded in the ashes of World War Two to protect humanity’s common cultural inheritance, is best known for designating and protecting archaeological and heritage sites, from the Galapagos Islands to the tombs of Timbuktu.

Audrey Azoulay, a former French culture minister, was elected to a second four-year term as its director-general earlier this week.