--- title: "Mitoraj Testa Addormentata — Amnesty International" description: "Mitoraj Testa Addormentata — pair of rare signed silver Amnesty International keychain pendants. 17 photos incl. box + gilt-bronze miniatures. Warsaw buyer." canonical: https://mitoraj-search.com/mitoraj-testa-addormentata modified: 2026-10-05 artwork: name: "Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International pendant)" year: "1980s" medium: "Silver" surface: "Patinated bronze" edition: "Limited; Amnesty International commission" height: "5 cm" artist: "Igor Mitoraj" artist_same_as: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Mitoraj - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q560499 image: "https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-1.webp" license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ credit: mitoraj-search.com generator: gen-md-alternates --- Own this piece? ✉ Email ☎ +48 575 967 063 Home › Igor Mitoraj — Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International) ~6 min read # Igor Mitoraj — Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International) Do you own this work? Sell it → Send photos via WhatsApp Scan with your phone camera to open WhatsApp — then send photos directly. sukaiqun@gmail.com +48 575 967 063 The **Testa Addormentata** (Sleeping Head) keychain pendant is one of the rarest objects in Igor Mitoraj's catalogue — a small silver pendant created by the sculptor for **Amnesty International**, bearing his signature on the reverse alongside the inscription *amnesty international*. It is not a bronze sculpture or a numbered edition in the conventional sense, but a unique collectible object that bridges Mitoraj's art with one of the twentieth century's most significant human rights organisations — and it is extremely scarce in the secondary market. **This page now documents a matching pair** — two examples of the pendant, patiently sourced from separate private sales and photographed side by side. ## About the Testa Addormentata Pendant The *Testa Addormentata* — Sleeping Head — belongs to a recurring theme in Mitoraj's oeuvre: the head in repose, neither fully present nor fully absent, caught in the liminal state between consciousness and dream. In his large bronzes, sleeping heads appear across numerous works; in this miniature silver pendant, the same form is compressed into an object meant to be carried and touched — worn as a keychain or displayed as a small sculpture. The connection to [Amnesty International](https://www.amnesty.org/) places this object in a specific context of solidarity and witness. [Mitoraj](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Mitoraj), himself a product of post-war displacement — born in 1944 in Germany of Polish and French parentage, raised under Communist Poland — had a personal understanding of political imprisonment and the vulnerability of the human body to state power. The sleeping head, in this context, is not merely an aesthetic motif: it is a figure of the prisoner, the detained, the silenced — those on whose behalf Amnesty International campaigns. ### Testa Addormentata — Object Details Medium: Silver · Form: Keychain pendant · Inscription: Mitoraj signature + amnesty international · Condition: Collectable **Obverse:** sculptural relief of the sleeping head in Mitoraj's characteristic style — the rounded, smoothed form of a reclining face with eyes closed **Reverse:** *Mitoraj* signature incised or stamped, with *amnesty international* inscription **Fitting:** keychain ring attachment at the top of the pendant **Material:** silver (exact purity not confirmed — test before purchase if important) **Scale:** small, designed to be worn or carried — pendant body approximately 3–5 cm in the longest dimension The rarity of this object in the secondary market makes it difficult to price from auction comparables. It has not, to my knowledge, appeared at any of the major European auction houses that regularly sell Mitoraj bronzes. Its value to a comprehensive collector of Mitoraj's work is therefore as a singular document of the sculptor's engagement outside the conventional art market. ## Mitoraj and Amnesty International The Testa Addormentata pendant represents Mitoraj's participation in a tradition of artists creating objects for charitable and advocacy organisations — a practice with precedents in the work of Picasso, Miró, and many twentieth-century European sculptors who considered their public profile an instrument of political engagement. For Amnesty International, whose emblem is a candle burning behind barbed wire, the sleeping head is a natural symbol: the consciousness that endures despite imprisonment, the human interiority that no detention can extinguish. The precise date of the commission and the total number of pendants produced are not documented in the publicly available Mitoraj catalogue. Examples appear very rarely, typically through private sale or estate dispersal rather than through auction channels. **Two examples now sit side by side in this collection** (see photographs 13–17 below), a coincidence made possible only by patient search across dispersed private sales — and, to my knowledge, the first pair to have been publicly photographed together. The final photographs show the pair in context alongside Mitoraj's gilt-bronze miniature [Corazza](/mitoraj-corazza) and [Torso Bijou](/mitoraj-torso-bijou) studies, giving a rare comparative view of the sculptor's small-scale output. If you have encountered another example of this pendant, or have documentation of the commission, I am very interested to hear from you. ## Photographs — Testa Addormentata Pendants ![Testa Addormentata — Amnesty International Mitoraj silver pendant, front](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-1.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Obverse** — Sleeping Head relief · silver pendant · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj signature and amnesty international inscription, reverse — bronze sculpture](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-2.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Reverse** — Mitoraj signature + amnesty international inscription clearly legible ![Testa Addormentata — silver pendant in original blue velvet presentation box, upright view](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-3.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Presentation case** — Original blue velvet box · pendant upright · complete as issued ![Testa Addormentata — silver pendant in box, Mitoraj bronze sculpture in background](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-4.webp) **Testa Addormentata — In context** — Pendant in open box · Mitoraj bronze sculpture in background ![Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International) — Igor Mitoraj, silver pendant obverse close-up, private collection](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-5.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Close-Up Obverse** — Amnesty International edition · private collection ![Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International) — Igor Mitoraj, silver pendant three-quarter view, private collection](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-6.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Three-Quarter View** — Amnesty International edition · private collection ![Testa Addormentata (Amnesty International) — Igor Mitoraj, silver pendant angled view, private collection](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-7.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Angled View** — Amnesty International edition · private collection ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendant with keyring, three-quarter view on light surface](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-8.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Three-quarter with keyring** — Silver pendant + attached keyring · private collection ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendant close view of bandaged head relief](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-9.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Close view** — Bandaged head relief detail · silver pendant ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendant additional angle](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-10.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Additional angle** — Silver pendant · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendant alternate view](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-11.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Alternate view** — Silver pendant · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata — Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendant with keyring, further view](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-12.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Further view** — Silver pendant · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata — pair of Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendants side by side, three-quarter view on wood](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-13.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Pair, three-quarter view** — Two silver pendants side by side · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata — pair of Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendants, close comparison of bandaged head surface](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-14.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Pair, close comparison** — Surface detail of two silver pendants · Amnesty International ![Testa Addormentata — pair of Mitoraj Amnesty International silver pendants at alternate angle, keyring visible](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-15.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Pair, alternate angle** — Second silver pendant with keyring · Amnesty International edition ![Testa Addormentata silver pendants shown among Mitoraj gilt-bronze miniature Corazza and torso studies — comparative study group](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-16.webp) **Testa Addormentata — In collection context** — Silver Amnesty pair alongside Mitoraj gilt-bronze miniatures ![Testa Addormentata silver pair alongside Mitoraj gilt-bronze miniature wrapped-form study collection on wood surface](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-testa-addormentata-17.webp) **Testa Addormentata — Full study group** — Silver Amnesty pair · gilt-bronze wrapped-form miniatures ## The Testa Addormentata in Mitoraj's Broader Practice The sleeping head appears in Mitoraj's work across scales and materials. In bronze, it is represented by the large Testa Addormentata sculptures that have appeared at public installations and auction — notably at Canary Wharf, London, and at several Italian piazze. In marble, sleeping head forms recur across the Pietrasanta studio's output. The small silver Amnesty International pendant is the most intimate and politically contextualised version of the motif. This miniature scale changes the relationship between viewer and object fundamentally. The monumental Testa Addormentata at Canary Wharf commands a public space; the Amnesty International pendant fits in a pocket. One addresses crowds; the other addresses individuals. Both express the same underlying conviction: that the sleeping, vulnerable, enclosed human consciousness is the ultimate subject of Mitoraj's art — and the ultimate object of political solidarity. ## Collector Notes For completeness-oriented collectors of Mitoraj's work, the Testa Addormentata pendant is one of the most interesting objects to acquire — precisely because of its rarity and its departure from the conventional bronze sculpture format. It documents Mitoraj's engagement with applied objects and charitable commissions, a dimension of his career that is underrepresented in the major catalogue literature. Authentication is straightforward: the reverse inscription is specific enough that a genuine example cannot easily be misidentified. The silver surface should show age-appropriate patination. The keychain fitting should be consistent with the pendant's apparent age. I buy examples in any condition, with or without the original keychain. ### Have questions about this work? Ask the AI assistant — grounded in this collection's pages, replies in your language. Ask the AI → ## Do You Have a Mitoraj Testa Addormentata Pendant? Send me a photograph of both sides — I reply the same day with a genuine offer. Any other Mitoraj work also welcome — any subject, condition, or format. See also: [Tête Secrète (sleeping/enclosed head)](/mitoraj-tete-secrete) · [Centurione II](/mitoraj-centurione-ii) · [All Mitoraj bronzes](/mitoraj-bronze-sculptures) · [Auction prices](/mitoraj-auction-prices) ## About This Collection This site documents one private collector's search for works by Igor Mitoraj (1944–2014) — the Polish-French sculptor celebrated for his fractured classical figures in bronze and marble. Mitoraj studied in Kraków under Tadeusz Kantor, trained in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, and established his permanent studio in Pietrasanta, Tuscany in 1983. His work is held in public collections across Europe and the Americas. If you have a Mitoraj work available, please use the contact button to get in touch. ### Other Works About Igor Mitoraj → Tête Secrète Centurione II Centurione Series Kea (1979) Eros Bendato Persée & Asclépios Visage Voilé Ikaria Pequeña Cuirasse II Interested in this work? Inquire about this work → ### You might also have ![Tête Secrète](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-tete-secrete-r.webp) Tête Secrète ![Kea](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-kea-r.webp) Kea ![Centurione II](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/mitoraj-bronze-head.webp) Centurione II ![Tindaro Screpolato](https://mitoraj-search.com/images/paris-tindaro.webp) Tindaro Screpolato ← 🇪🇸 Igor Mitoraj in Tenerife, Spain Igor Mitoraj — Tête Secrète → Recently viewed 𝕏 Share f Share Thinking of selling a Mitoraj? [See our dedicated sell page →](/sell-mitoraj) ← Stella Tête Secrète → Photo credits: - Tindaro, Campus Westend, Frankfurt (2012) — NoX / [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mitoraj_1997_Tindaro-00.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)