Philip Spiess
Paul: I, too, was wondering what steps were being taken to prevent a second vandalism of the Capitoline Wolf statue -- making the statue solid metal, or providing surveillance cameras? (I don't much like "Big Brother" watching us, but if people will insist on acting like idiots. . . .) Every article I've seen about this gift from Mussolini says that he gave the statue to Cincinnati "in honor of Cincinnatus, that great Roman general." Well, that may be true in part, but has no one considered that Rome was known as "the city on seven hills"? That happens to be a major nickname for the city of Cincinnati as well, which is a more plausible reason for Mussolini to have given the statue.
And as to that matter of Mussolini. I see in the public prints that on January 6, 2020, a Cincinnati Councilman by the name of Chris Seelbach wanted to remove the Capitoline Wolf statue because it was a gift from "the monster that was Mussolini." No, I don't know the recent City Council men and women, not having lived in the city for so long (maybe one of you Cincinnati residents can put me au courant), but it seems that Mr. Seelbach was going to draft legislation the very next day for the statue's removal -- without, I take it, getting any feedback on the subject from the local citizenry. Well, it turns out that Mr. Seelbach was also the City Council member who, on June 14 of the same year (2020), announced that he would introduce a motion to remove the equestrian statue of William Henry Harrison from Piatt Park by the Cincinnati Public Library because Harrison was "a slave-owner" (never mind all of those Native Americans he slaughtered in the early days of our republic). The William Henry Harrison statue happens to be the only equestrian statue in Cincinnati, and it is by one of Cincinnati's most important sculptors, Louis T. Rebisso. Surely the City Council has more pressing local matters to deal with than busying itself with removing public sculpture. (Why not remove the statue of Cincinnatus from the waterfront? After all, his title was "dictator.") I think Mr. Seelbach should be accused of "statuary rape."
|