The Italian Ambassador
Embassy of Italy
1601 Fuller Street, NW
Washington, DC

October 24, 1996

My Dear Mr. Ambassador:

This letter requests your assistance in the return by the Italian government to Ethiopia of the great Aksumite obelisk, taken as Axis Italian war booty from a prostrate Ethiopia, as discussed below.

I have heard that the Italian government, at long last, is considering recognizing its treaty responsibility to return to Ethiopia the Great Obelisk of Aksum, stolen by the Fascists in 1937, from an Ethiopia which they invaded and violated. This colossal theft is, of course, among the first war crimes of the various Fascist aggressors during the era of World War II, a devastation with which they engulfed the world.

The grand monument of Aksum is a magisterial manifestation in architecture and art of the cultural heritage of the citizens of Ethiopia. The present Italian government, successor to that of the Fascists defeated by the United Nations in 1943, should speedily restore this looted monument to its original Aksumite location, and at no cost to the government and people of Ethiopia. Such a return of its war loot by a post-Fascist government of Italy is now more than a half century overdue. I am sure that the current government of Italy will, at long last, desire to do the right thing as a legitimate member of the family of nations--immediately restore the great Obelisk to Aksum.

As an Italian-American on my mother's side (nee Aïda Rosa Durante, daughter of Pasquale and Rosa Durante), I find the Italian war crimes against persons and property in Ethiopia unconscionable. I request your excellency's assistance in this one matter of effecting justice, long denied, regarding the Great Obelisk of Aksum.

Very truly yours,

Frederick C. Gamst, Ph.D.
Professor of Anthropology