Lot 883

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Description:

ARDEATINE CAVES MASSACRE EXHUMATION SKETCHES
DOCUMENTING THE MASSACRE OF ITALIAN HOSTAGES Group of eight ink sketches, seven measuring 12 3/4" x 16 1/2" (sight), and one 19 1/2" x 13" (sight), documenting the exhumation and identification of the victims of the Ardeatine Caves Massacre in 1944. Seven of the eyewitness sketches are executed on acetate paper, matted and mounted on paperboard, while the eighth is executed on heavy art paper. The sketches, undertaken by an unknown Italian artist, depict the original disposition of the corpses inside the cave, the removal of the bodies by Italian workers, the blessing of the victims by a Catholic priest, the staging of film equipment in the cave, the filming and documentation of the crime scene, military officials viewing the scene, the transportation of the bodies to an identification area, and the identification of one body by chief pathologist Attio Ascarelli, as grieving family members look on. Four of the sketches are titled "Fosse Ardeatine" and dated "Agosto 944" (1944) beneath the mount. The massacre, committed on March 24, 1944, was carried out in retribution for a partisan bombing attack which killed 28 SS policemen. Hitler personally authorized the order for retaliatory executions, and 335 Italians, including Jews, Communists, resistance fighters, and a Catholic priest, were shot in the back of the head at close range inside the caves. After the massacre, the caves were sealed with explosives, only to be discovered after the Allied liberation of Rome in the summer of 1944. Film footage of the exhumation process, depicted in these sketches, was instrumental in the 1948 trial of Herbert Kappler, the head of the German security forces in Rome who ordered the murders. This footage is available online through the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The sketches bear some toning, and one bears a small tear on its face, but they remain a vivid testimony to one brutal event in a vast and vicious conflict. Also present is a hardbound book, "Eye Witness", edited by Robert Spiers Benjamin (New York: Alliance Book Corporation), 1940, 306pp. 8vo., an anthology of dispatches on various topics by members of the Overseas Press Club of America. The dust jacket, covers, and interior pages bear nine ink stamps indicating that it was once part of the collection of Mussolini''s Royal Ministry of Culture. The book was present with the sketches when they were discovered by our consignor.

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September 14, 2017 11:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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