Of all the great paintings in the world, Guernica has had a more direct impact on our consciousness than perhaps any other. In his new book the acclaimed biographer of Gaudi brings his knowledge and insight to bear on this key cultural icon. He tells the paintings story from its beginnings in the violence of the Spanish Civil War when Nazi Germanys Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Gernika in what would become a trial run for the Blitzkriegs of the Second World War, through its time as a weapon in the propaganda battle against Fascism and the years when it became the nucleus of the nascent Museum of Modern Art in New York, to its role as a symbol of reconciliation when it returned to Spain after the death of Franco and the re-establishment of democracy in that country. It is an epic story and one to which Gijs van Hensbergen has done full justice.