Ash prevents leaders attending Polish funeral 18.04.2010. Great absent

The Krasnals. Whielki Krasnals "Foreign excursion to Wawel 18.04.2010. Great absent". 2010. Oil on canvas. 215 x 198 cm

A thick cloud of volcanic ash hovering above Europe prevented foreign leaders from flying to Poland on Sunday 18th at the funeral of Lech Kachinsky. Big pompous funeral took place without so many important guests. And Poland lost it's chance for a while of glory because of the ash...

Wisława Szymborska:
Komsomolskaya bright sun irradiates the whole world
Poland sends greetings today
to all the young people of the Soviet state

Margaret Thatcher:
- It is a great night. It is the end of Socialism. Don't allow tyrants and aggressors to get away with it.

Nicolas Sarkozy:
- If living in France bothers some people, they should feel free to leave the country. I would like to see polar bears in Poland.

Osama bin Laden
- Thanks God for enabling me to do so!

Shimon Peres:
- Israel's economy is flourishing. Israeli business people are investing everywhere in the world. Israel has unprecedented economic success. By today, we have won economic independence and are buying up Manhattan, Poland and Hungary. I don't have to lose my time going to Poland now.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yushchenko:
- Obama and Merkel will not come... But at least will write about us at all Polish newspapers.

Barack Obama:
- I have a special tool for the dirt, but... A thick cloud of volcanic ash hovering above Europe will ground Air Force One this weekend, preventing me from flying late Saturday night to Poland.

Angela Merkel:
- hmm… I just came back from the nuclear summit in America... A process has been set in motion which will seek to contain one of the more perilous hazards of the 21st century, namely, the threat of nuclear fuel falling into the hands of terrorists... I wish I could rest a bit.

Yasser Arafat:
- Are you asking me while I am under complete siege?

Jose Barroso:
- As president, he had enormous challenges and difficult mandates, but he certainly brought East and West closer together and helped replace confrontation by cooperation.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen
- That's what it's like when people have crawled very high up in a tree, then they sometimes need help to get down with ladders and ropes and other instruments.

Dmitry Medvedev
- That means exactly what I said that we have similar values...