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MILAN — Italy’s culture minister is refusing a request by the German State Antiquities Collection in Munich to return an ancient Roman statue that embodied Hitler’s Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure.
The statue, unearthed at a Roman villa in 1781, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally obtained by the Nazis.
The dispute arose when the director of the National Roman Museum requested the statue’s 17th-century marble base be returned from the Antikensammlungen state antiquities collection.
The German museum instead asked for the return of the Discobolus Palombara, saying it had been illegally transported to Italy in 1948, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Friday.
“I made a joke — they’ll have to step over my dead body,’’ the minister told Italian Rai state TV on Saturday evening.
“This work was obtained fraudulently by the Nazis, and it’s part of our national heritage,’’ Sangiuliano told Rai.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
MILAN — Italy’s culture minister is refusing a request by the German State Antiquities Collection in Munich to return an ancient Roman statue that embodied Hitler’s Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure.
The statue, unearthed at a Roman villa in 1781, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally obtained by the Nazis.
The dispute arose when the director of the National Roman Museum requested the statue’s 17th-century marble base be returned from the Antikensammlungen state antiquities collection.
The German museum instead asked for the return of the Discobolus Palombara, saying it had been illegally transported to Italy in 1948, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Friday.
“I made a joke — they’ll have to step over my dead body,’’ the minister told Italian Rai state TV on Saturday evening.
“This work was obtained fraudulently by the Nazis, and it’s part of our national heritage,’’ Sangiuliano told Rai.
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