The work was commissioned in 1939 by the
Ministry of Popular Culture to the sculptor Arturo Dazzi from
Carrara to decorate Piazza Imperiale – which, according to the project of the
1942 World's fair of Rome, should have been located in the center of the newborn quarter – and to commemorate the physicist and inventor Guglielmo Marconi (who had died 2 years earlier). With the entry of Italy into the
World War II in 1940, the works were suddenly interrupted, even if Dazzi had already completed the first two registers, carved in
high relief on
Carrara marble. In 1951 work resumed, despite the intention of the Ministry of Public Works, chaired by
Salvatore Aldisio, to demolish the structure. In 1953, on the occasion of an Agricultural Exhibition held in EUR, the sculptor refused to cover the reinforced concrete structure with temporary panels of
gesso and, after having requested some funding in view of the
1960 Summer Olympics, the monument was concluded and inaugurated on 12 December 1959. == Description ==