The Times - UK (2022-01-01)

the times | Saturday January 1 2022 43

Wo r l d

For nearly a century it has been an
iconic war photograph, capturing the
moment that a soldier of the Republi-
can forces is cut down by fascist gunfire
during the Spanish civil war.
The Falling Soldier has, however, been
the subject of doubt about its authentic-
ity ever since Robert Capa published
the shot, which he said was taken on
September 5, 1936, during the battle of
Cerro Muriano, near Cordoba.
“The truth is the best picture, the best
propaganda,” he told the New York
World-Telegram a year later.
Now Fernando Penco, an archaeolo-
gist from Cordoba, has added to the
claims that The Falling Soldier was
staged, based on a study of the land-
scape in the photo and witnesses’ ac-
counts.
Penco said his evidence suggested
that the image was taken instead near
the village of Espejo, 50km (31 miles)

KRISTY SPAROW/GETTY IMAGES

A man who disappeared 44 years ago
and was declared dead has been offi-
cially restored to life after seeking help
from a hospital.
Vincenzo Biondo, 61, dropped out of
an orphanage near Trento, where he
was being trained for hotel work, when
he was 17. He lived on the streets for the
next four decades, travelling the length
and breadth of Italy without a recog-
nised identity.
Carabinieri in Levanto, near Genoa,
where he is recovering from a kidney
operation, managed to restore him to
official existence after matching him to
a photo and a fingerprint taken when he
was stopped by police nine years ago.
The authorities then had failed to no-

tice that he was officially dead. The
identification was confirmed by his
brother Vito, 66, from photos shown to
him by police in the northeastern city of
Trieste, where he lives. A third brother,
Vincenzo’s twin Tommaso, also ended
up on the streets and was eventually
found dead in Bologna.
Vito said: “The carabinieri in Trieste
called me and asked me to identify a
photo: the nose and mouth were the
same, even though he was in poor shape
and I hadn’t seen him since 1977. After
such a long time and so much suffering
in my family, I don’t feel up to meeting
Vincenzo.”
Vincenzo’s return to civic life began
when he entered a hospital in La Spezia,
on the Italian Riviera, in June 2020 but
then decided he did not need treat-
ment. Miria Giannone, a lawyer ap-
pointed as his legal guardian, asked the
carabinieri in the neighbouring town of
Levanto to find out who he really was.
A “declaration of presumed death”,

Brother is back

from the dead

after 44 years

issued by a court in Trento at the re-

quest of his brother, came to light when

he was transferred to the San Niccolo

hospital in Levanto to continue his re-

covery. He considers the nurses there

as his family and is reluctant to leave.

The declaration has now been

revoked. “It meant he couldn’t do

anything, not even receive the welfare

payments he might be entitled to,”

Giannoni said. It was difficult to get him

to open up about his past, she said.

Investigators have discovered some

arrests for minor thefts, born of neces-

sity, and said he appeared to have taken

to the streets after suffering severe de-

pression. “There are no serious crimes

on his record. He’s a harmless person,

very kind, very reserved and some-

times a bit confused,” Giannoni said.

Biondo was born in Marsala, Sicily, to

a farming family who emigrated to

Germany in 1968. After their mother’s

death, their father put his three sons in-

to an orphanage in the early 1970s and

they have not heard from him since.

Michele De Toma, the carabinieri

commander in Levanto who brought

Vincenzo back to life, said it was unclear

what had driven him on to the streets

originally. “We’re trying to find out.

Perhaps the brother will be able to tell

us something,” De Toma said.

He hoped that Vito might change his

mind about meeting his brother and the

carabinieri were prepared to help him

with the cost of the journey from

Trieste if he did.

The authorities hope the publicity

given to the case may prompt other

people who were associated with him

over the past 40 years to come forward.

“It’s a story that our community has

greeted with amazement and incredu-

lity,” Massimo Grillo, mayor of Marsala,

said. “I’d like to meet this person and we

will try to make contact with him.”

De Toma said: “His future is uncer-

tain. Social services will have to find a

solution. His case is unusual, but there

are people living as tramps everywhere,

many people just existing as ghosts.”

He added: “What moved me the most

was bringing a person back to life, that

was really emotional.”

Italy
Philip Willan Rome

Capa’s iconic shot soldier ‘was faked’

from Cerro Muriano, the day before

Capa claimed to have caught the image.

Penco first had suspicions in 2007

after Richard Whelan wrote Robert

Capa at Work: This is War. “When I saw

the mountainous backdrop, I knew it

wasn’t Cerro Muriano,” he

said. “I know it like the

back of my hand.”

Penco hit upon Es-

pejo as the location

based on topogra-

phy and historical

cartography. The

theory of the date

is based on the

positioning of

light.

Penco also said

there was no record

of fighting in Espejo on

September 4, 1936. He

noted that Capa, alongside

photographer Gerda Taro, were photo-

graphed with Republican troops in Es-

pejo on the day he believes the image

was taken. The next day, they took pho-

tographs of refugees in Cerro Muriano.

“Staging was very common during

the civil war,” said Penco. He

points to the account of OD

Gallagher, a war corre-

spondent, who said in

the 1970s that soldiers

were told to pose.

He also claimed to

have identified the

subject of The Falling

Soldier as Rafael

Medina after meeting

Jose Luis Santos, who

said Medina, his uncle,

was executed in 1939 “for

political reasons”.

Despite his claims that the

photograph was staged “there is

no doubt that The Falling Soldier re-

mains one of the greatest photographs

of the 20th century”, Penco said.

Spain
Sabrina Penty Madrid

Officials in Sardinia are imposing a

three-year ban on fishing for sea ur-

chins to preserve depleted stocks, hir-

ing unemployed fishermen to monitor

their recovery and clean up the sea bed.

The regional government has allo-

cated €2.8 million compensation to

those affected by the ban, which will

begin on January 22.

The roe of Paracentrotus lividus,

known as ricci on Italian menus, is

eaten raw with lemon and is also used

to flavour pasta sauces. Known as uni

by sushi-lovers in Japan, it is considered

a delicacy and can fetch £260 a kilo.

“The pause is necessary to allow

stocks to recover and to rebuild this re-

source of our territorial sea, which has

been put at risk by the massive harvest-

ing in recent years,” Gabriella Murgia,

the regional councillor who tabled the

Italians are urged to stop

scoffing all the sea urchins

measure, said. Murgia, a member of the

hard-right Brothers of Italy party, said

that the species was at risk of commer-

cial extinction in Sardinian waters. “It

was necessary to intervene with drastic

management measures and a tempo-

rary closure.”

She said that fishermen normally in-

volved in harvesting the echinoderms

would be paid to help scientists moni-

toring their recovery.

“The proposal is supported by profes-

sional fishermen who recognised the

risk of extinction of the species before

anyone else,” she said.

The agriculture ministry has also im-

posed a ban this year on the harvesting

of sea cucumbers, Holothuroidea.

However, sea urchins are not

depleted everywhere. Across the

Mediterranean in Spain they have been

so prolific as to be considered an

infestation in some areas.

Philip Willan

A

t the age of 15

Karoline

Bjornelykke

was a model

for Chanel,

striding down runways in

Paris (Rob Hyde writes).

Her slender frame and

strawberry blonde hair

won her work for

Armani, Louis Vuitton,

Vogue Japan and,

strangely enough, several

plus-size brands with

ranges from XL to 5XL.

Bjornelykke, 25, and a

UK size 10-12, revealed on

a TikTok post that some

brands had asked her to

use padding.

“If you have eyes, you

can see I’m not that size,”

she said. “So how do we

fix this problem? Well, I

have to bring to work

something... which is

basically a fat suit in

separate pieces.”

Bjornelykke said that

fashion brands preferred

to hire thinner women

rather than plus-size

models. “They want the

neck and the face to look

really slim and sharp...

which creates impossible

beauty standards,” she

said. Plus-size clothing

can mean big profits

for fashion labels. A

report by Allied

Market Research

says that the global

industry, worth

$480 billion in 2019,

could reach

$696.7 billion by

2027. Bjornelykke
      still models while
      studying in Oslo.
      She said that she
      had used padding to
      work in the US and
      Germany. “It
      happens in England
      too,” she added. “It’s
      often used if the
      model is smaller than
      expected since the
      client does not
      always know the size
      of the model.
      “The fashion
      industry has sharp
      faces as a big beauty
      standard, so it’s more
      that they prefer slim,
      sharp faces even on
      plus-size models.”
      The post, with
      more than 300,000
      views, prompted
      widespread criticism of
      the fashion industry.
      Viewers’ comments
      criticised those behind
      the business but some
      said that models were
      complicit in deceiving the
      public. Bjornelykke came
      to the defence of her
      colleagues.
      “I don’t think it’s right
      to blame the models,” she
      said. “If one model
      refuses the job, another
      one will take it. The
      model also doesn’t know
      if padding will be used
      before arriving.
      “I don’t do these
      adverts now because I
      don’t think it’s right and
      don’t desperately need
      the money. The real
      power is with the
      consumers. I wanted
      plus-size women to be
      aware of this so that they
      can not feel bad when
      they see these impossible
      beauty standards.”

Plus-size

model spills

fashion’s big

fat secret

Karoline Bjornelykke

was a model in Paris

before exposing her

secrets on TikTok

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