Nestor Basterretxea was born in Bermeo. He was a boy of war and exiled in Argentina aboard the Alsina in 1952 to Madrid and that year he won the competition for the mural of the Basilica of Arantzazu. In the 1960s he founded the vanguard group Gaur along with other artists. He worked in sculpture, ceramics, photography, industrial design and cinema. The feature film Ama Lur premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival and had problems with Francoist censorship by nationalist references. One of his most well-known works is the sculpture that presides over the Chamber of the Basque Parliament. He died in 2004 in Hondarribia.