Freedom Sculpture
sculpture by Cecil Balmond
The Freedom Sculpture or Freedom: A Shared Dream, is a 20,400 lb (9,300 kg) stainless steel, gold, and silver public art sculpture in Century City, Los Angeles, California, by artist and architect Cecil Balmond. Balmond applied both titles to this sculpture, inspired by the 2,500 year old Cyrus Cylinder considered by some to have been an early written declaration of human rights by Cyrus the Great, King of ancient Iran, who was viewed as granting individual and religious freedoms to all those within his vast and culturally diverse empire.
Design and construction
The sculpture was commissioned by the Farhang Foundation, and Balmond's design was selected among over 300 worldwide entries. The double-cylinder sculpture is made of two water jet-cut stainless steel double cylinders (gold interior cylinder, silver exterior cylinder), supported by two 15-foot diameter stainless steel half-rings. The sculpture sits on a travertine stone platform and includes lighting.
Donation and unveiling
The sculpture was officially donated to the city of Los Angeles and unveiled on July 4, 2017 with a crowd of over 75,000 attendees. At the unveiling ceremony, a proclamation of support by California Governor Jerry Brown was read. Also, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti sent a video message and Fifth District Councilman Paul Koretz presented a certificate of appreciation to the Farhang Foundation and the Iranian-American community.
The sculpture is located on Santa Monica Boulevard on a street median at Century City, Los Angeles, California.
Funding and support
The Freedom Sculpture generated significant support on social media, with over 1.1 million fans supporting its creation with over $2.2 million.
The public source identifies “Freedom Sculpture” as sculpture by Cecil Balmond. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Freedom, Sculpture and sculpture.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q32090498. Authority coordinates are 34.062, -118.417. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Freedom Sculpture” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.