ROME, Ga. -- When the Chatillon Corporation Silk Mill relocated to Rome from Milan, Italy, in 1929, the Italian dictator presented the city with a gift.
The statue -- a replica of a Etruscan statue standing on Capitoline Hill in Rome, Italy's Palazzo dei Conservatori -- features a Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus. Interesting as the statue may appear today, during the 1930s and 1940s, the wolf wasn't so revered by Romans -- especially since the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, gave the 1,500-pound statue to the city.
In 1933, one of the twins was stolen; on March 17, 1934, the Rome Rotary Club presented a replacement from Italy. With the onset of World War II and Italy's involvement grew, city residents threatened to destroy the statue. So, in June 1940, the city council decided to remove the statue from public display and put it into protection, where it remained until 1952 when residents wanted to publicly display it once again.
On Sept. 8, 1952, the statue was put back on its pedestal in front of City Hall.
"Regardless of its hectic past, the Capitoline Wolf remains as much a part of Rome, Ga. as it does Rome, Italy," the Rome News-Tribune reported in a Sept. 2, 1963, article.
For its part, the Italian sculpture dates to either the 5th century, the 13th century AD or the 15th century AD, depending on the source.
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