Italy’s culture minister is refusing a request by the German State Antiquities Collection in Munich to return an ancient Roman statue that embodied Hitler's Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure.
The Discobolus Palombara is a 2nd-century Roman copy of a long-lost Greek bronze original. Hitler had bought the Roman copy from its private Italian owner in 1938 under pressure from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and against the wishes of the education minister and cultural officials. The statue, unearthed at a Roman villa in 1781, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally obtained by the Nazis.
