Fascist banners worth millions of pounds stolen from state archive in Italy
Nearly 1,000 Fascist banners which were carried by Benito Mussolini's supporters during the putsch that brought him to power in 1922 have been stolen from a government archive in Rome.
The 970 banners could be worth up to €5 million if sold on the black market to collectors, experts said.
The banners have significant historical value and some were embroidered by the mothers of Fascists who died in clashes with rival Socialist and Anarchist groups.
“They attached personal objects to the banners such as buttons, rank insignia, even scraps of cloth soaked in blood,” said a historian, Pietro Cappellari. “There are people who would spend a great deal to get their hands on them.”
They could increase in value as the centenary of the March on Rome approaches in 2022.
The flags were stolen from a state archive in Eur, a district of Rome that was built on the orders of Mussolini in the 1930s to showcase the supposed glories and architectural marvels of Fascism.
The theft took place in mid-June but has only now been revealed. The banners were taken from the Central State Archive, a huge building which stores government documents and records as well as artefacts and memorabilia from the Fascist era of 1922-1943.
The theft is being investigated by a unit of the Carabinieri paramilitary police that specialises in cultural heritage crimes.
The banners were probably stolen bit by bit, at different times, rather than all removed in one go.
Investigators believe it may have been an inside job, with the thieves apparently aware of the position of security cameras and alarms.
They took advantage of the fact that the archive, which contains millions of paper and microfilm documents, was undergoing restoration work.
The March on Rome was an insurrection in which bands of armed Fascists known as Blackshirts converged on the capital from all over Italy in October 1922.
The act of intimidation cowed the government and brought Mussolini to power, heralding the start of Fascist rule.
