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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Places Photo Galleries >> Rome, Georgia Images Gallery > 2007 - the Romulus and Remus statue with the Capitoline Wolf, donated by Benito Mussolini
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10-NOV-2007 Don Boyd

2007 - the Romulus and Remus statue with the Capitoline Wolf, donated by Benito Mussolini

Downtown Rome, Georgia


From http://romegeorgia.com/history.html :

The statue of Romulus and Remus, which is located at the approach of the entrance of the Municipal Building of the City of Rome, Georgia, was an official gift from the Roman Governor, by order of the Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini. It was presented when the Chatillon Corporation (Silk Mill), Celanese Corporation of America, which originated from Chatillon Corporation in Italy, was brought here in 1929. This presentation from ancient Rome to modern Rome was made on July 20, 1929 by Dr. Marco Biroli of Soie De Chatillon, Milan, Italy.

We do not have the name of the sculptor of the statue, but the original, an example of Etruscan art, of which this statue is an exact replica, stands in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy.

The bronze plate on the marble base of the statue bears the following inscription:

ROME NOVAE AUSPICIUM PROSPERITATIS ET GLORIAE LUPAM CAPITOLINAM SIGNUM ROME AETERNA CONSULE BENITO MUSSOLINI MISIT ANNO MCMXXIX

Translation: "This statue of the Capitoline Wolf, as a forecast of prosperity and glory, has been sent from Ancient Rome to New Rome, during the consulship of Benito Mussolini, in the year 1929".

In 1933 one of the twins - no one ever knew whether it was Romulus or Remus - was kidnapped from the pedestal. Neither the kidnapper nor the twin was ever found, but through the efforts of the Rome Rotary Club and the International Rotary Club, another twin was sent from Italy to replace the missing one.

War left its mark on the Capitoline Wolf and her adopted human babies. When Italy declared war on the Allies in 1940, threats to dynamite and destroy the statue become so numerous that the Rome City Commission ordered the statue removed and stored for safety.

In 1952, a movement was started by citizens and art lovers to restore the statue and on September 8, 1952, after an absence of twelve years, the 1500-pound statue of the Capitoline Wolf was placed on its pedestal in front of the Municipal Building.


other sizes: small original auto
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