Medals Related to Aviation, Italy, Crociera Aerea del Decennale, 1933, an Art Déco bronze medal by R. Morbiducci, head of Speed facing left into the wind, roma-chicago new-york-roma below, rev. angled bird’s eye view of the progress of the flight from the Colloseum to a Chicago skyscraper, polar bear at top, redit italia per aethera mvssolini dvce balbo dvctore in centre, 59mm (cf. DNW 64, 1448). Extremely fine, attractively patinated, rare; in maroon fitted case of issue by Arte Medaglia, via Nazionale 54, Roma (£150-200)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, World Art Medals from the Collection of Dr Stephen Martin.

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Plate 11. Between 1 July and 12 August 1933 Italo Balbo (1896-1940) led a mass formation of some two dozen Savoia-Marchetti hydroplanes from Italy to the Chicago Century of Progress Exhibition to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Mussolini’s rise to power. The crossing, from Orbetello, via Amsterdam, Reykjavik, Cartwright, Shediac and Montreal, returning via New York, Shoal Harbour, Lisbon and Rome, a distance of 12,000 miles, was a follow-up to the first Atlantic crossing made by Balbo in 1930 to Brazil, which had been a major propaganda coup for the Fascists. The second journey was an equally grand success and 7th street in Chicago was named after him