ROME – Rome’s iconic Colosseo Quadrato monument has been vandalised and seriously damaged, with costs for its repair estimated at tens of thousands of euros. Andrea Santoro, president of the city’s IX district in which the Colosseo Quadrato is found, announced on Sunday that the staircase of the monument, known formally as the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, “has been targeted by vandals: the edges of the travertine steps have been torn off and thrown against the structure itself. It is the umpteenth vandalism incident since – to mention only the most recent ones – those on the small lake and the benches in the park.”

 The Palazzo is an icon and symbol of Fascist architecture, designed in 1937 to host the Universal Rome Exhibition (EUR) initiated by Benito Mussolini, and to this day remains one of the most famous architectural representations from the Fascist era. Since the planned exhibition was cancelled in 1941 the building was left semi-abandoned for over a decade, being re-opened in 1953 for Rome’s Agricultural Exhibition in 1953.

 For five years it was closed to the public for restoration before a controversial 15-year lease was bought by luxury fashion label Fendi to use as its headquarters. They reportedly pay 2.8 million euros a year for the space.

 Santoro said that Fendi had fitted 30 CCTV cameras on the premises but that they had been disactivated for over a year due to service costs not being paid. In a Facebook post he affirmed that “we will reactivate all the video cameras present in the EUR and I am asking businesses that already have them active to help us, because we must take care of these criminals and not allow them to increase until they have everything back in place. Some people say that video cameras do not respect privacy. I respond to them that I will not respect privacy. I want these criminals to be seen by the world.”

 Stefano Pedica, Democratic party candidate in the primary elections in Rome, commented that “the destruction of the staircase of the Colosseo Quadrato at the EUR is a grave incident of vandalism and we must not just look on. We need to increase controls in the entire district and EUR video cameras must be reactivated immediately. When security is at stake the resources can and must be found.”

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