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Is Italy's famous 6th-century BCE statue known as the "Warrior of Capestrano" a Mussolini-backed forgery? Recently granted permission to test the mysterious statue, held in Abruzzo's National Archaeology Museum in Chieti, central Italy, may have the answers, reports the Times of London.
The over-two-meters-high, imposing limestone figure, adorned with a wide-brimmed hat, its arms crossed upon an hourglass-shaped body outfitted with intricately carved armor and weapons, was discovered buried in an Abruzzo vineyard in 1934, along with several items believed to have been part of the ancient city of Aufinum. Since then, archaeologists have largely agreed that the Warrior of Capestrano is a pre-Roman artifact from the Piceni civilization, and the oldest Italic statue of such monumental proportions. The finding soon became a national symbol of the region's ancient history, and is a regular fixture of local souvenir shops, postage stamps, and the Abruzzo coat of arms.
But what if it was, in fact, a fabricated tool of Benito Mussolini's fascist propaganda machine, used to unify the country around a symbol of shared heritage and military strength? That is what documentary filmmaker, journalist, and science writer Alessio Consorte has been asking for years. His 2023 documentary film, making that claim, cites as proof a signed letter by a Jesuit priest at the Vatican's institute for Christian archaeology, among other alleged irregularities. According to Consorte, the Vatican letter also backs the theory that the statue was made by an antiquarian from Naples, working with the same farmer who claimed to have found it. Further, Consorte alleges the statue was modeled on Mussolini's own portrait-despite the stone figure appearing to wear a funerary mask. As Consorte tells it, the two men behind the scheme were awarded the equivalent of €17,000 for their "archaeological discovery," by the fascist state at the time.
For about three years, Consorte, who is from Abruzzo, has been fighting the Italian culture ministry in court for permission to test the sculpture's authenticity on his own dime, using non-invasive X-ray machines, and with the cooperation of a group of independent scientific experts.
"Why should these people today be represented by a fake warrior?" Consorte told the Times. "Should children or university archaeology students spend years studying a statue that is not actually genuine? What sort of education are they receiving?"
Making matters worse, a letter signed by Federica Zalabra, regional director of the National Museum of Abruzzo, along with Italy's ministry of culture, formally denied permission to test the sculpture, under the pretext that such tests had already been done. However, when Consorte asked to see the results, a court-appointed commissioner concluded no such documentation existed in the museum's archives.
In February, following administrative court rulings in Consorte's favor, the ministry finally greenlighted the tests, which will be led by a team of scientists, including Consorte, and a member of the National Research Council. But in May, a new contract from the Ministry of Culture authorizing testing came with a catch: "When they sent us the contract to sign, they attached an additional document that required the utmost secrecy and prohibited publication without their consent," Consorte told ARTnews in an email. "The document provides for clauses concerning reputational damages, criminal prosecution, and civil liability for compensation."
In response, Consorte filed an appeal earlier this month with the local Administrative Court in Pescara, asking that the Ministry of Culture and the Regional Directorate of Museums, which oversees the museum in Chieti, remove the clauses requiring government consent to disclose results. The restriction "is a form of censorship and is contrary to the freedom of scientific research and dissemination," Conosorte argued further in his email to ARTnews. "For me, scientific evidence is indisputable, whether the results are favorable or unfavorable." A hearing for the appeal is still pending.
Whatever future tests do ultimately reveal, the wide-hatted warrior arguably deserves a spot in the country's national museums, albeit for possibly different reasons that have to do with Italy's more recent, dramatic past.
