The record
Four segments painted by Thierry Noir: one the GDR gave in 1990 for a planned human rights palace, three bought after the Monaco auction failed to sell them. They were raised outside the court in 1997.
Four segments — recorded as numbers 125 to 128, about 4 m across and 3.60 m high — stand in the grounds of the European Court of Human Rights. They carry work by Thierry Noir, among the first artists to paint the Wall while it stood. Siting them at the court that hears human rights cases against forty-something states is an argument about what the Wall was: not a Cold War curiosity but a rights violation with a building full of lawyers now attached to it.
How did it get here?
One segment was given in 1990 by the German Democratic Republic, at the request of the Council of Europe's secretary general, for a planned Palace of Human Rights in Strasbourg; three more were bought from the East German trading company Limex after failing to sell at the Monaco auction of June 1990. All four were kept in store until 1997, when they were erected in front of the court. Along with the three segments Lothar de Maizière handed over at Koblenz, the first is one of very few gifts in this catalogue made by the East German state itself rather than by Berlin after unification.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #120 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #407.
Strasbourg, F — The Wall Net ↗
Segments 125 to 128 from Kreuzberg: one requested from the GDR for a planned Palace of Human Rights in Strasbourg, three bought by the city from Limex after the Monte Carlo auction; the dimensions, Noir's painting and the 1997 erection.
General referenceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The request made in February 1990 by the Council of Europe's secretary general, Catherine Lalumière, for a Wall element for a planned Palace of Human Rights; the GDR Council of Ministers' approval of the gift in March 1990; the purchase of three more segments from Limex after they failed to sell at the Monaco auction of June 1990; their storage, and their erection in front of the Court in 1997, standing as they had in Kreuzberg.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Le mur de Berlin est (en partie) à Strasbourg — Cotad ↗
26 November 2019: four segments of the Berlin Wall stand in the gardens of the European Court of Human Rights in the Wacken district, painted by Thierry Noir; the architect Richard Rogers had tried to bring them inside the Palais des Droits de l'Homme.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 120
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 407
Source-reported segments: 4. This is not a separately verified count.
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