Museum
Mussolini’s boots O
ne of (or should that be two of?), the most unusual objects in the collection of the REME Museum are Benito Mussolini’s boots. They are not a pair of boots he actually wore, but rather these remarkable items were once part of a bronze statue that stood in Tripoli’s Piazza Castello, a grand public square near the harbour of the Libyan capital. The story of REME’s connection to the boots is a fascinating tale. As part of its policy to create an empire, Italy began to try and
forcibly colonise Libya in 1911. These efforts intensified from 1922 onwards, as Mussolini became the Italian Prime Minister in October of that year. The second Italo-Senussi War (the Senussis are a Muslim political group who led the fight against the Italians), was fought for the next ten years, but was eventually won by Italy (significant war crimes were committed by the Italian military during this period, and the government agreed to pay compensation to the Libyan people in 2008). Not long after coming to power, Mussolini began to impose the concept of Fascist rule on Italy and the lands under its control. He used art, architecture and iconography to deliberately connect his new Italian empire to Rome at its imperial height, in an effort to inspire Italians and to impress the world. Photographs and posters of Il Duce, as he liked to be known (a word derived from the Latin for leader, dux), appeared everywhere, and architecture and art was consciously used to emphasise the link between modern Italy and ancient Rome. What particularly appealed to Mussolini was installing enormous contemporary statues in the public places of Italy and its empire. The statues were usually either of himself, copies of figures from the Roman period or a race of idealised “Aryans”, to which Mussolini believed the Italian people belonged (Aryanism was a popular ideology among Fascists like Mussolini, as it suggested Europeans are a group of humans naturally superior to all other types. It is an idea that has long been discredited as nonsense). There were a number of reasons for this approach. He knew ancient Roman leaders commissioned many marble statues of themselves, both to remain in the public eye, and to ensure both Romans and those they oppressed knew who was in charge. Mussolini followed this same approach This is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, a building forming part of Rome’s EUR for exactly those reasons. He was also, like many dictators district. It was inaugurated in 1940 despite being unfinished, as it was intended since, very concerned with his country’s image abroad. He to play a part in the planned 1942 World’s Fair; the War meant this event never took place. The architectural links to The Coliseum are obvious and deliberate; thought the rest of the world would come to admire him and Italy if he portrayed Italians in stone and metal as Romans even call it The Square Coliseum. The contemporary statues in the foreground serve to further emphasise the links Mussolini conscioulsy wanted perfect human beings. The Tripoli statue of Mussolini on horseback is a perfect to make to Rome and its ancient empire. Image taken by Jeremy Thompson, expression of this political and cultural policy. It was cast in March 2010, and reproduced under the Creative Commons licence bronze by the sculptor Quirino Ruggeri (1883 – 1955), and unveiled in 1933 by Marshal Italo Balbo, Governor General of Libya. It is a typical example of the Fascist statuary so admired by Mussolini: large, deliberately exaggerated, stilted, lifeless and devoid of emotion or humanity. He probably saw the statue for himself in 1935 when he made an official visit to Tripoli, and no doubt he approved. What would certainly have been less agreeable to Il Duce was the fact that it did not remain in place for long. Following victory in North Africa, the Allied leaders decided the next phase of the War would begin with the invasion of Sicily. This campaign, codenamed Operation Husky, began in July 1943 and used the Allied bases on the North African coast as launching points. Tripoli was home to 3 Advanced Base Workshop REME, and it was men from this unit that were given permission by the British Military Administration to melt down the statue for the bronze it contained. They removed it from its stone plinth in December 1943 and gave it to the RAOC to be used in the manufacture of spare parts. Unfortunately it was discovered the quality of the bronze was so poor that the metal could not be used for any Roman mosaics are known and revered throughout the world. Mussolini’s military purpose. All was not lost however, and typical government purposefully used the same art form, both to link his regime to British military ingenuity led to a series of napkin rings of Italy’s early forbears and also to extol their own virtues. Image taken by Michael various sizes being made (a number of these are in the Tinkler, March 2011, and reproduced under the Creative Commons licence Museum’s collection). The horse’s testicles were transformed
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