Revealed: The truth behind ‘Statue of Liberty’ made from rubble in Syria

A picture of Syrian ‘Statue of Liberty’ caught people’s attention on the internet shortly after a tweep shared it on the micro-blogging website a few days ago.

The man who shared the image captioned it: ‘Statue of Liberty made from bombed rubble of Aleppo, by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam. Devastating’

Bremmer’s tweet of the image, which shows a reconstructed the Statue of Liberty from the rubble of a destroyed building, has so far been retweeted 12,000 times. But the description made some people believe as if any construction was underway in the strife-hit area.

Statue of Liberty made from bombed rubble of Aleppo, by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam. Devastating. pic.twitter.com/XTFpfSEtSR

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) October 22, 2016

This image is actually a piece of digital artwork created by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam in 2012. According Al Arabiya, in 2012 Azzam re-arranged pieces of a photograph showing a destroyed Syrian building into the shape of the Statue of Liberty. Azzam did not comment on how his artwork was being interpreted in 2016, but did say that his use of the Statue of Liberty was intended to represent freedom and not be a commentary on U.S. politics:

The statue doesn’t actually exist in real life – in fact if you look at the edges on the statue’s crown this is plain to see.

Syrian daily 9/11 pic.twitter.com/k5fcMmwDRt

— tammam azzam (@tammamazzam) September 11, 2015

Azzam has created a number of images relating to the conflict in Syria.