Lucien Wercollier

Lucien Wercollier
Lucien Wercollier in 1995
Born	Lucien Wercollier 26 July 1908 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Died	24 April 2002 (age 93) Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Education	Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts (1927-1931)and the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris (1931-1933).
Known for	sculpting

Lucien Wercollier (July 26, 1908 – April 24, 2002) was a sculptor from Luxembourg.

While he worked primarily in bronze and marble, some of his work is sculpted in wood, alabaster, stone and onyx. His public monuments in bronze and marble are of particular importance. Works by Wercollier can be found in public places and museums in Belgium, France, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the United States.

During the German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II, Wercollier refused to join the Reichskulturkammer, the Nazi organization that ensured all artists' works were of an acceptably "Aryan" spirit. This refusal put him at odds with the Nazi occupiers, and when he participated in the 1942 nationwide strike, he was arrested on September 4, 1942. Wercollier was first imprisoned in the Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg City. Today, the Abbey is home to the Lucien Wercollier Cloister, where many works from his private collection are permanently displayed. In 1965 when the lighthouse-shaped National Monument to the Strike was opened in Wiltz (which won the title of the "martyred city" for the Germans' particularly strong vehemence leveled against it in response), Wercollier created the two reliefs on the lighthouse displayed there.

Wercollier was later transferred to the Hinzert concentration camp in Germany. The camp, located just 30 kilometers from the Luxembourg border, was one of the main sites where Luxembourger resistance leaders were sent. Today, one of his best-known bronze sculptures is on the grounds of the Hinzert concentration camp where it honors the prisoners and those murdered there.