BC ARTISTS: Charles Marega bust of Mussolini

Charles Marega bust of Mussolini

This photograph of a bust of Benito Mussolini by Charles Marega was posted on-line in an exhibition titled "Italian Canadians As Enemy Aliens: Memories of World War II." The bust is nominally in the collection of the Vancouver Museum, item number H2009.22.1. Marega's "CM" mark is on the base, upper right. Apparently the bust is about three feet high. A search on the Museum's website produced no result for the bust.

Interestingly, the City of Vancouver Archives accessioned this bust, accession number LDICEA2012.0035.0001, but a search on their website for that number, or for "Mussolini" on December 29 2023 produced no results. The BC Artists biography on Marega notes that he exhibited a MASK of Mussolini in 1928, and a BRONZED CONCRETE BUST of Mussolini in 1930. A letter by Archivist J.S. Matthews describes the item in the city archives as having a "head and shoulders" which is clearly not the sculpture illustrated here. It is more likely that the image shows the MASK of Mussolini.

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