Edouard Potvin

Mussolini

Mussolini's Monument

““ Shot to death by a fi ring squad, together with his mistress and a handful of former Fascist leaders, the fi rst of the Fascist dictators, the man who once boasted that he was going to restore the glories of ancient Rome, is now a corpse in a public square in Milan, with a howling mob cursing and kicking and spitting on his remains.” (M) New York Times, 1945.Mussolini was a man of images, he created an image for the Italian people, an image of the past that has never existed. His obsession with history still stands with us to this day, the reason why in Italy so many historical buildings are conserved and cherished is because of Mussolini. He was a man who tried to blend himself with history in a way where we can’t tell between the truth and the myth. The greatest example was the famous Roman salute, a gesture probably never used in ancient Rome, its roots vaguely coming from the french revolution, was adopted by Mussolini and depicted in films about ancient Rome, deeply cementing the ties between the salute and Roman culture (H) . Italy to this day restores historical fascist artifacts, including the Mussolini Obelisk in Rome, a gigantic piece of marble forever etched with the man’s name. Mussolini in history was forever painted as a villain, yet he was the one holding the brush.”