Zitouna Mosque - Tunisiaca - Original Photolithograph by Bettino Craxi - 1994 1994

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Zitouna mosque - tunisiaca is a wonderful black and white photolithograph on parchment, realized in 1994 by the italian politician … Read more Zitouna mosque - tunisiaca is a wonderful black and white photolithograph on parchment, realized in 1994 by the italian politician bettino craxi. A rare and precious specimen, an (unnumbered) artist proof, signed in pencil on the lower right margin. From an edition of 120 numbered pieces. Published in the portfolio ''tunisiaca d'aprés auguste lumière''. This is a collection of five photolithographs taken from original slabs by a. Lumiére and sons, dedicated to tunisia by bettino craxi in honor of the centenary of the lumière brothers. After this first series, craxi would create in 1996 a tunisiaca ii, a second collection of the series, lithographs that reproduce some landscapes and scenes of everyday life in tunisia, and then tunisiaca iii d'apres auguste lumiére in 1997. This original print is in excellent conditions, except for sporadic foxing, and includes a wooden frame (51 x 55.5 cm). With his camera, bettino craxi, stained by public accusation of corruption, observed his new country of exile, tunisia, declaring: ''i am locally in contact with sporting, cultural and social associations, and kindly informed about their activities. I have contacts with a publishing house and a print shop in tunis who edited three lithographic series that i produced, two in the brothers' centenary lumière, and one later ''. In this desperate situation, he realized these wonderful photolithographs, saying: ''in these conditions, while on the one hand i thank god for being still alive, on the other i continue to live as i can, defending my freedom and my life, since i think one equals another, according to an equation that in my mind it is well rooted and very lucid.'' indeed, in august of 1993, in front of a speechless parliament, he made the historic speech that sounded like a challenge to the whole italian political class: ''stand if you have never taken illicit financing in this country''. Then he remembers the money paid by the soviets to the pci and the paramilitary apparatus of the kgb in italy. However, overwhelmed by the judicial scandals and pursued by the arrest warrants of the mani pulite pool in milan, craxi decided not to go to court and in 1994 he fled to his villa in hammamet, tunisia, where heads of state and politicians from all over the world once loved being hosted. For six years, italy has pretended to forget him: a few politicians visited him, only a few friends stayed by his side. See less