Egypt’s Minister of Culture from 1987 to 2011, HE Mr. Farouk Hosny is an abstract painter.  He has held exhibitions worldwide and has won the Japanese Soka Gakai International University Cultural and Peace prize. Between 1971 and 1978, he was Egypt's cultural attaché in Paris, and from 1979 to 1987 served in the same position in Rome where he also occupied the position of director of the Egyptian Academy of Arts. In 1987, Farouk was appointed the Minister of Culture in Egypt. During his tenure, he expanded state-run exhibition spaces and initiated various cultural programs, including the Horizon One Gallery, the Palace of Arts, Gezira Arts Center, Alexandria Center of Arts, the Modern Dance Troupe and School, the Cairo History Rehabilitation Project, the Nubian Museum in Aswan and the Alexandria National Museum and the Cultural Development Fund. On July 30, 2007, Egypt nominated Hosny to succeed Koichiro Matsuura as Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. He began a campaign to get elected to the position, which no Arab had previously held. Farouk was regarded as certain to win the September 2009 election, but his May 2008 pledge to burn Israel books in Egyptian libraries sparked doubts about his suitability for the position and strengthened opposition to his candidacy. The man of principle lost the UNESCO election and blamed his defeat on Zionist pressure groups. He criticized the US UNESCO ambassador, David Killion, for derailing his election. Farouk holds a BA. from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Alexandria.