Autograph letter by D'Annunzio returned after more than a decade to Rome's Central Library

Carabinieri from the Antiques Section of the Operational Department of the Cultural Heritage Protection Command have returned a handwritten letter by Gabriele D’Annunzio, stolen more than a decade ago, to the National Central Library in Rome. Returning the letter to the library’s director, Stefano Campagnolo, was the commander of the Antiques Section of the Tpc Operational Department, Lt. Martina De Vizio.

It is a manuscript, dated Nov. 18, 1926, consisting of three ivory-colored sheets, measuring 32.5 x 24.5 centimeters, all with the logoed header “SQVADRA DI SAN MARCO - TI CON NV, NV CON TI.”

In the letter, D’Annunzio addresses “To my dear friend,” as stated on the unrecovered envelope, identified according to investigative findings in the person of Giovanni Rizzo, and writes: “I enclose a telegram with indications of the arrival, in Modane, of Dr. Michele Mendelsohn, my medical friend from Paris. Who is coming to see me; and he brings me some objects of art belonging to my Parisian house, which still remain there. They are destined for the Vittoriale degli Italiani.”

The document had been seized by art carabinieri from a private collector in Viterbo, who had put it up for sale on the Web after buying it a few years earlier at the Roman antiques market. The discovery was made possible by constant monitoring of pages devoted to buying and selling art goods. The letter had likely been stolen from Rome’s National Central Library before 2012. The Arma’s men traced the identity of the seller and prevented the missive from being lost again in a trade in the rich collectors’ market.

Archivists at the National Central Library in Rome found traces of abrasion in the ink stamps affixed to D’Annunzio’s papers and several abrasions and erasures in the inventory numbering shown on each page. The identification was aided by the cataloging, inventorying and digitizing activities carried out by the Library in the time before the theft and the comparison of the images with those contained within the “Data Bank of Illicitly Misappropriated Cultural Assets,” exclusively managed by the Tpc Command, the largest database with several million cultural assets surveyed and digitized.

“The important recovery of the valuable letter written by D’Annunzio shows how it is necessary to always keep the level of attention on these documents as well. It must also increase the public’s perception that these are crimes against the community and against everyone’s heritage,” said Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano. “Our applause goes to the Carabinieri of the Tpc who, thanks to the work, tenacity and cutting-edge investigative techniques used, are a true excellence of Italy, envied by the whole world. Our thanks to the men and women led by General Vincenzo Molinese for their daily service to the nation.”

“The Carabinieri operation confirms the constant commitment in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural property conducted by the Tpc Command and the fruitful collaboration with the central and peripheral bodies of the Ministry of Culture,” said Brigadier General Vincenzo Molinese, Commander of the Carabinieri Tpc.

Autograph letter by D'Annunzio returned after more than a decade to Rome's Central Library

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