Court rules Italy can return 'Venus of Cyrene' to Libya -- it's not Italian
Court rules Italy should return Venus to Libya
Mon Apr 23, 1:09 PM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Italy can return to Libya an ancient statue of Venus taken to Rome during Italian colonial rule in 1912, after a court ruled on Monday it was not part of Italy's cultural heritage.
The headless "Venus of Cyrene" was carried away from the town of Cyrene -- an ancient Greek colony -- by Italian troops and put on display in Rome.
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to return it on a visit to Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi in 2002 was blocked by legal action lodged by a group called "Our Italy," whose aim is to keep Italy's cultural treasures in Italian ownership...
Some Italians oppose the return of such works of art, with National Alliance deputy Fabio Rampelli lamenting "the systematic looting of Italy's 'naturalized' artistic heritage."
He hoped the Venus would not "suffer the same fate" as the ancient Axum obelisk which troops of dictator Benito Mussolini took from what was then Abyssinia in 1937. It was returned to Ethiopia to be "abandoned on a rooftop," according to Rampelli.
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Mon Apr 23, 1:09 PM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Italy can return to Libya an ancient statue of Venus taken to Rome during Italian colonial rule in 1912, after a court ruled on Monday it was not part of Italy's cultural heritage.
The headless "Venus of Cyrene" was carried away from the town of Cyrene -- an ancient Greek colony -- by Italian troops and put on display in Rome.
Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to return it on a visit to Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi in 2002 was blocked by legal action lodged by a group called "Our Italy," whose aim is to keep Italy's cultural treasures in Italian ownership...
Some Italians oppose the return of such works of art, with National Alliance deputy Fabio Rampelli lamenting "the systematic looting of Italy's 'naturalized' artistic heritage."
He hoped the Venus would not "suffer the same fate" as the ancient Axum obelisk which troops of dictator Benito Mussolini took from what was then Abyssinia in 1937. It was returned to Ethiopia to be "abandoned on a rooftop," according to Rampelli.