3. The last letter of Marshal Ion Antonescu to his mother, Litza, May 31, 1946 (1 page), kept in the family

The lot comes from the archive of Marshal Ion Antonescu's grand-niece, Rodica Mărculescu, the niece who was raised in his family after she was orphaned at the age of two. She had a special relationship with the marshal's wife, whom she cared for and helped after 1946. Rica, the wife, left her inherit several assets that belonged to her and the marshal. These assets have remained in the niece's family until now. In a memoir about Ioan Petru Culianu, Șerban C. Andronescu tells us, referring to these assets, that: “Philippe had been a popular journalist in Paris during Marshal Petain's time when Romania was led by Marshal Antonescu, and Artemisa had been friends with Rodica Mărculescu. Left orphaned at two years old, Rodica had been raised alongside Ion Antonescu; she was like his good sister and, as Mizica said, died in her arms in the old apartment on Mosilor 246. She left Mizica with a few things from the Antonescu family, Mrs. Maria Antonescu's mink coat, the marshal's gold watch with chain, letters and other things of this sort." Beyond the biography of the person - condemned by the People's Tribunal on May 17, 1946 for war crimes - from whom the few preserved objects in the family originate, these are historical evidence, which can be known and researched. The project of their introduction for sale through auction does not aim in any way to embellish the biography and deeds of Marshal Ion Antonescu or to soften, however small, the decisions that led to the Holocaust or to military actions on one side or the other of the fronts of that violent historical period.

Dimensions

custom 21 x 17 cm

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