Muammar Gaddafi was Libya’s ruler from 1969 to 2011 and an unusually committed practitioner of political theatre. On foreign visits, he often received dignitaries inside a large Bedouin tent, presenting it as a connection to his desert upbringing. The tent travelled to Brussels, Moscow, Rome and Paris, where it was erected in palace gardens and surrounded by security, communications equipment and Gaddafi’s considerable entourage. Its greatest difficulty came in New York in 2009. Central Park refused it, New Jersey objected and officials ordered it removed from an estate owned by Donald Trump for violating local regulations.
Gaddafi’s travelling tent
