Pope John Paul II sculpture criticised for resembling Benito Mussolini

The highly abstract sculpture, which portrays John Paul in an ecclesiastical robe with his arms outstretched in a gesture of welcome, was unveiled this week in the large piazza outside Rome’s main railway station, Termini.

Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, described the work as “modern and evocative”.

With its bald head and beetle brow, the statue, which now dominates one of Rome’s biggest squares, bears distinctly Churchillian features, although Romans were struck more by its resemblance to Benito Mussolini.

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