In the eastern side of the Public Lobby. visitors can see a gift from the United Nations staff members as well as as Marc Chagall, the artist. It was presented in 1964 as a memorial to Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary General of the UN, and the fifteen other people who died with him in a plane crash in 1961.
The memorial, which is about 15 feet wide and 12 feet high, contains several symbols of peace and love, such as the young child in the center being kissed by an angelic face which emererges from a mass of flowers. On the left, below and above motherhood and the people who are struggling for peace are depicted. Musical symbols in the panel evoke thoughts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was a favorite of Hammarskjold's.
