BY NBC NEWS
The German State Antiquities Collection in Munich has requested the repatriation of an ancient Roman monument that represents Hitler’s Aryan ideal, but Italy’s cultural minister has refused, citing the artwork as a national asset.
Roman statue A second-century Roman replica of a long-lost Greek bronze original is the Discobolus Palombara.
In 1938, Hitler purchased the Roman copy from its private Italian owner, against the directives of cultural authorities and the Italian ruler Benito Mussolini. The statue, which was discovered in 1781 in a Roman villa, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of the unlawful artifacts that the Nazis took control of.Roman statue
The argument started when the National Roman Museum’s director asked that the statue’s 17th-century marble foundation be taken back from the state antiquities collection, Antikensammlungen. Instead, the Discobolus Palombara was requested to be returned by the German museum, which claimed it had been brought into Italy illegally in 1948, according to a Friday story in the daily Corriere della Sera.Roman statue
Gennaro Sangiuliano, the minister of culture for Italy, questioned Claudia Roth, the minister of culture for Germany, on her knowledge of the Bavarian request.Roman statue
“It’s a joke, they’ll have to walk over my corpse,” the minister said on Italian Rai state television on Saturday night. He called the German request for its repatriation “inadmissible” un his remarks.Roman statue
Sangiuliano said to Rai, “This work was obtained fraudulently by the Nazis and it’s part of our national heritage.” He said he hoped the base will be given back.
