Diplomatic frictions between Rome and Berlin for a great cultural treasure? Italy’s culture minister has rejected a request by the German State Antiquities Museum in Munich to return a Roman statue that embodied Hitler’s “Aryan aesthetic”, calling it a national treasure.

THE “Palombara Discus Thrower” is a 2nd century AD Roman copy of the famous Greek bronze prototype of the sculptor Myron which has been lost. As the AP reports, Adolf Hitler had bought the Roman copy from its private Italian owner in 1938 under pressure from the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and against the wishes of the Minister of Education and officials responsible for Italian culture. The statue, discovered in the Roman Villa Palombara in 1781, returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally acquired by the Nazis.

The dispute arose when the director of the National Roman Museum asked for the marble plinth to be returned of the 17th century statue from the Antikensammlungen state antiquities collection. Instead, the German museum demanded the return of the discus thrower, saying that ehad been illegally transported to Italy in 1948, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Friday.

Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, expressed doubts that German culture minister Claudia Roth was aware of the Bavarian state’s request.

“I made a joke – they should walk over my dead body”, the minister characteristically stated on the Italian state television RAI on Saturday night. In his comments, he criticized the German request for his return as “unacceptable”.

“This work was fraudulently obtained by the Nazis and it is part of our national heritage,” Sanjulian clarified to RAI. He expressed hope that his base would be returned to Italy.