Mirko Basaldella's preparatory drawing for Fosse Ardeatine mausoleum exhibited at Casa Cavazzini

On the 73rd anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, Casa Cavazzini – Museo d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Udine has put on display for the first time the preparatory drawing for the main gate of the Mausoleo delle Fosse Ardeatine in Rome. The drawing was created in 1950 by sculptor Mirko Basaldella together with Francesco Coccia. The work, owned by the Fondazione Friuli, is on loan to the museum through a free-use agreement and is now exhibited in the first-floor room dedicated to the Basaldella brothers. The massacre occurred on March 24, 1944, when 335 Italians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack in via Rasella that killed 33 German soldiers. After the war, the Comune di Roma held a competition for a mausoleum; Basaldella won the commission for the entrance gates. The museum notes that Basaldella adopted an abstract approach to elevate the specific event to a universal human drama.