It was one of the most unusual interviews. She was a glamorous Italian film star of the 1950s, and she was once described as “the most beautiful woman in the world.” He was Cuba’s surly communist leader.
But Gina Lollobrigida and Fidel Castro clearly hit it off. He was so fascinated by her interrogator, who had become a photojournalist after her film career, that he took off her watch and gave it to her.
The watch, which he later inscribed with the inscription “To Gina, with all my admiration,” was put up for auction this month along with more than 400 pieces of jewelry, furniture and other belongings belonging to Lollobrigida, who died last year at the age of 95. I’m planning on doing it.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Lollobrigida appeared in many European and American films opposite many of Hollywood’s leading actors of the time, including Sean Connery and Anthony Quinn. Hunchback of Notre Dame and Yul Brynner solomon and sheba.
Other items up for auction at Genoa’s Huanenes auction house include encounters with actors ranging from Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman and Bill Clinton to Henry Kissinger, Humphrey Bogart and Salvador Dali. It includes photos, memorabilia and even some film awards.
“There are countless objects that tell the story of an unusual woman’s life,” said Guido Wanenes, CEO of the auction house. observer. “Castro’s watch is particularly iconic. When the two met in 1974, he took it off his wrist and gave it to her. This gesture made history.” It tells us a lot about this woman known for her beauty and charisma. ”
Lollobrigida’s relationship with Castro reportedly began in 1973, when the communist leader asked to meet her during a political visit to Italy. By that time, Lollobrigida had built her second career as a photojournalist, and she managed to get her exclusive interview in 1974.
“When I came up with the idea of a photo story about Fidel Castro, I asked myself: Isn’t it dangerous?” she later told an Italian magazine. Gente. “He had heard that he was always surrounded by armed soldiers, and he was intrigued by that idea as well. Castro hasn’t been photographed or interviewed by anyone lately. There wasn’t.”
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Lollobrigida ran for election twice in later years but lost. In the 1999 European elections, he ran as a candidate for the center-left Democratic Party led by Romano Prodi, but in September 2022, four months before his death, he was elected from Italy by the New Eurosceptic Party because he was “tired of bickering politicians.” He ran in the general election.
A few years before her death, Lollobrigida was embroiled in a legal battle against her son and grandson Mirko Skofic and Dimitri Skofic, who accused her assistant Andrea Piazzolla of stealing her property. Piazzolla, who worked with Lollobrigida for 10 years and moved into her home with her partner, was found guilty of embezzling millions of euros from her estate between 2013 and 2018, and was arrested last year on 11 He was sentenced to three years in prison in September.
