Monumental Artworks as Difficult Heritage

Abstract In 1936, Benito Mussolini invaded and occupied Ethiopia. The following year, he declared that Sicily represented „the geographical centre of the Empire“. This new Fascist empire and Sicily’s role within it gave rise to numerous interventions into the island’s urban landscape, from renaming streets and installing commemorative plaques to commissioning monumental colonially-themed artworks. It is on this last category that the present article focuses, examining three such works: two frescoes by Alfonso Amorelli for a privately-owned shopping arcade in Palermo; a mosaic by Michele and Basilio Cascella for a train station in Messina; and a series of frescoes by Gino Morici and Pippo Rizzo for the reception rooms of the local government headquarters in Ragusa. The article explores both the genesis of these works and then, primarily, the factors that have influenced their reception from the end of the Fascist regime in 1943 to today, considering the visibility of the works to the general public; their perceived quality and the artist’s reputation among art historians and critics; and the political and historical moment. Ultimately, the article asks to what extent these artworks should be regarded as examples of „difficult heritage“ and what the management of them in postwar Italy can reveal about memories of Fascist colonialism today.