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The travertine structure, formally known as the "Great House
of Italian Civilisation" or the "Great House of the Civilisation
of Work", was built by dictator Benito Mussolini for a planned
world's fair in 1942 that was canceled due to the outbreak of
World War Two.
Abandoned and little used since then, the rationalist imitation
of the ancient Colosseum amphitheatre now houses 500 Fendi
employees and a free art exhibition on the ground floor.
"We are opening the doors of a building that for 72 years has
been closed to the world and hiding its beauty," Fendi chief
Pietro Beccari said at a preview of the exhibition.
In a hushed, white-walled workshop on the lowest of seven
storeys that loom over the so-called EUR business district south
of Rome that was Mussolini's great project, Fendi's employees
measure and trim pieces of fur.
The company has agreed a 15-year lease, after speculation that
it could buy the building outright from the cash-strapped
state-controlled owner of the district.
Beccari said he thought the Italian government would be happy to
have as its tenant a company that has already paid to restore
the Trevi Fountain and the Four Fountains monument in central
Rome.
Fendi has not said how much it cost to convert the fascist-era
building into office space, or the price of leasing it, but
Italian media have reported the annual rent to be around 3
million euros ($3.36 million).
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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