Council turned off idea of sculpture for fascist Marconi

A SCULPTURE honouring Guglielmo Marconi, the father of radio, is set to be abandoned after Labour councillors discovered his support for Mussolini.

Marconi, who was born in 1874 and died in 1937, was a joint winner of the Nobel prize for his “wireless telegraphy” work, which included discoveries that allowed messages to be sent via radio waves. He was born in Bologna, then moved to the UK after the Italian government refused to fund his work.

Cardiff council had planned to erect a sculpture to honour Marconi’s 1897 feat of transmitting radio messages over water between Flat Holm island and Lavernock Point, off the Welsh coast.

The sculpture of an old radio transmitter, which would have been put in Cardiff Bay Barrage, was intended to be part of the council’s £1.1million funding project for the area. However, plans are now under “review” after the council was made aware of Marconi’s support of Italy’s fascist government and his involvement with the war on Ethiopia.

In 2002, documents discovered in Rome showed that Marconi stopped Jewish scientists joining the Academy of Italy, which he ran. He was found to have marked shortlists of candidates with the letter “E”, standing for “Ebreo” – the Italian word for Jew.

Marconi was appointed to the post by Benito Mussolini, which made him a member of the Grand Council of Fascism, a ruling body of the government.

In a lecture he also boasted of the “honour of being the first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy”.

A spokesman for Cardiff council said: “While Flat Holm Island is famous as the site of the world’s first radio transmission over open sea, radio pioneer Marconi’s involvement with the Italian Fascist Party [is] less well known.

“Having been made aware of these matters, the project team will [begin] a review of the sculpture proposals to ensure that the history of Flat Holm Island is celebrated in a way that’s consistent with Cardiff ’s values as a tolerant and welcoming [city].”