Italy begins to reckon with Fascist-era colonial collections

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Italy is starting to come to terms with its Fascist-era colonial past and the loot it has in its museums. It’s something of a turnabout given that Italy has long been considered a victim of looting. It has spent decades trying to recover ancient Etruscan vases and Roman statutes that ended up in museums around the globe. But for over a year, a team of museum directors, university researchers and scholars have been conducting a “census” of the collections in the 498 Italian state museums to get a handle on whether they contain any stolen loot from Italy’s colonial empire.