Bronze statue in San Francisco's Civic Center of the Assyrian monarch Ashurbanipal (669-627 B.C.) clutching a lion in one hand and a tablet full of cuneiform writing in the other. The Assyrian people gifted the city with this statue in 1988 to remind citizens that the Assyrians constitute a living culture, even though they have no state. In the background on this bright afternoon is the southern facade of the Asian Art Museum.