Mussolini’s embarrassing Waldensian gifts
For twenty years, the institutions of Vaud and the entourage of the Italian dictator multiplied diplomatic gifts, accompanied by bombastic declarations.
–At the end of 1940, the Vaud Council of State requested that copies of the gold bust of Marc-Aurèle, recently discovered in Avenches, be made quickly. One will be offered with great pomp to the Duce in Rome.
On the left, the original. On the right, the copy, gold-plated.
© Swiss National Museum
“It is commonly said that small gifts maintain friendship. This is true even with regard to relations between States and nations, when we know that these gifts come from the heart and that they proceed from the sincere desire to understand and esteem each other”, assures, inspired, the “ Journal de Montreux”, in its edition of October 30, 1941.
