THE STATUE OF QUEEN ELENA: A MONARCHIST MONUMENT
Florentine artist Antonio Berti’s statue of Queen Elena was inaugurated in June 1960--more than half a century after the earthquake, fourteen years after Italy voted in a referendum to become a Republic, and eight years after the former Queen’s death in exile. The work was funded by a newspaper subscription, and does not claim to express the city's collective memory. Post-war Messina was a city with strong monarchist leanings that lasted until the Christian Democrat party asserted its political hegemony. The statue was a political gesture that belongs very much to that historical moment rather than the post-earthquake conjuncture.
A 'false memory' about Queen Elena
