A bronze statue of a wolf — a gift from the city of Rome to Cincinnati during the 1930s when dictator Benito Mussolini was in power — has been stolen from Eden Park. Cincinnati Parks spokesman Rocky Merz says a park visitor reported the missing statue early Friday morning. "What they discovered is that — the statue is a large bronze statue of a wolf — somebody had cut the wolf off at the paws and removed the entire bronze section," Merz reports.

The Capitoline Wolf statue depicts the she-wolf nursing the Roman mythological twins Romulus and Remus. It stands on a granite and marble base inscribed "Il Governatore di Roma, alla Citta di Cincinnati, ANNO X," roughly translated as "from the governor of Rome to the city of Cincinnati in the 10th year of Mussolini's time in power." It's an exact replica of Lupa Capitolina at the Musei Capitolini in Rome.