At midday, on June 29th, 2009, the first visitors to arrive at the Grévin discovered Barack Obama's waxwork figure next to Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel — who entered the Grévin last April —, Vladimir Putin, Juan Carlos, Mohammed VI and Abdoulaye Wade.

The Grévin waxworks museum, launched in 1882, has some 800,000 visitors per year, of which 25% come from abroad, many of them American.

The United States has always played a major role in the history of Europe and the world, and the Grévin has represented most of its Presidents since 1882: James Garfield, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and, of course, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

President Obama's figure was the work of the sculptor Eric SAINT CHAFFRAY, who has been with the Grévin for over 20 years and is the author of the figures of Alain Ducasse, George Bush, Charles Aznavour, Arielle Dombasle, Fabrice Luchini, Bernard Kouchner and many more.

The waxwork figure was solely inspired by photographs, thanks to the kind assistance of the Corbis Sygma agency and video imagery.

This is a tricky and hazardous exercise for the sculptor who has to evaluate volumes and the exact measurements of the face and body. As for the make-up and hair artist, she has to juggle with the complex task of getting the right colours for hair, skin and complexion although from one photo to the next, colours change considerably and there are many differences.

But, once again, they produced a striking resemblance to the original.

Barack Obama: born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, (Hawaii); his father was black and from Kenya and his mother was a white American from Kansas. He is the 44th and current President of the United States of America. He is the first African American to hold the office; a truly historic event fulfilling Martin Luther King's dream.