Robert Holmes received the Premio del Presidente/ Città di Firenze and the Premio Lorenzo il Magnifico medal for an artist's lifetime achievement at the fourth edition of the In-ternational Biennial of Contemporary Art in Florence, Italy in December 2003. More than 800 artists from 74 countries were selected based on the quality of their creative work and the cultural and ethnic values they represented. An international committee representing 37 countries selected the artists. Then an international jury of nine eminent art critics, au-thors, art historians, and museum curators selected the actual pieces to receive awards in the Biennial exhibit.

Distinguished New York art critic and professor Dr. Barbara Rose chose her U.S. nomi-nees on their stature of professionalism, diversity and artistic individualism. "These art-ists presentations attempt to speak to a universal audience during this time of world change. The nominated artists represent the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds of individuals residing in the United States of America. Their artworks provide new vision-ary concepts of individualistic artistic expressions."

In the picture above, Holmes is standing by the sculpture he submitted to the exhibit, "Mr. G", 7'0"x3'1"x2'8".