''Atlas Libertas'' is a sculpture placed on the main façade that welcomes visitors in the Business School Building at

Universidad Francisco Marroquín Francisco Marroquín University (Spanish: ''Universidad Francisco Marroquín''), also known by the abbreviation UFM, is a private, secular university in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It describes its mission as "to teach and disseminate the ethical, ...

(UFM), in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. The monument was made as a tribute to the spirit of enterprise and creative power of the individual, in the frame of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the publication of ''

Atlas Shrugged ''Atlas Shrugged'' is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her '' magnum opus'' in the realm of fiction writing. ''Atlas Shrugged'' includes eleme ...

'' the novel written by

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

. This artwork responds to the mission of the university: “to teach and disseminate the ethical, legal, and overall economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons”. It's a high-relief sculpture of a human figure supporting the universe, seen from the back from head to hip. The universe is represented by a series of semicircles (abstract planets and gear mechanisms). The sculpture is made of brass plate with a cyan-colored finish resembling oxidized copper. ''Atlas Libertas'' is 4.5 x 4.5 meters. Its author is the sculptor Walter Peter Brenner, it was unveiled on October 11. of 2007. The sculpture includes a quote from the Part III, chapter VII of ''Atlas Shrugged'': "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours."

References

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External links

Atlas Libertas
Universidad Francisco Marroquín Sculptures in Guatemala Objectivism