''Neuf lignes obliques'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Nine Oblique Lines) is a steel monument on the

Promenade des Anglais The ''Promenade des Anglais'' (; Niçard: ''Camin dei Anglés''; meaning "English Walkway") is a wikt:en:promenade, promenade along the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of Nice, France. It extends from the Nice Côte d'Azur Airport, airp ...

, by French artist

Bernar Venet Bernar Venet (born 20 April 1941) is a French conceptual artist. Early life Bernar Venet was born to Jean-Marie Venet, a school teacher and chemist, and Adeline Gilly and was the youngest of four boys. He was brought up in Château-Arnoux-Sai ...

. It was commissioned to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1860 annexation of the County of Nice by France. The sculpture is made of nine steel beams, 30 metres long, which meet at their top. As the name implies the beams are inclined at an oblique angle. The sculpture is made of 65 tonnes of

corten steel Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rus ...

, set on a 130 tonne concrete foundation. ''Neuf lignes obliques'' is between the George Pompidou esplanade, a square on the south side of Vieux-Nice, and the

on Nice's

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

coast. The Mayor of Nice,

Christian Estrosi Christian Paul Gilbert Estrosi (born 1 July 1955) is a French sportsman and politician who has served as Mayor of Nice since 2017, previously holding the office from 2008 to 2016. A former professional motorcyclist, he served as a government m ...

, commissioned it to symbolise the nine valleys of the old

County of Nice The County of Nice (french: Comté de Nice / Pays Niçois, it, Contea di Nizza/Paese Nizzardo, Niçard oc, Contèa de Niça/País Niçard) is a historical region of France located around the southeastern city of Nice and roughly equivalent t ...

as well as the surrounding mountains pointing to the sea. The sculpture was inaugurated on 31 May 2010 and moved 10m to its current site in 2012.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Nice 2010 sculptures Steel sculptures Outdoor sculptures in France Sculptures by Bernar Venet