Don Guido Colonna, dei principi di Paliano, noble of Rome, patrician of Naples and Venice (16 April 1908, in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

– 27 January 1982, in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

) was an Italian aristocrat, diplomat and European Commissioner.

Biography

Guido Colonna di Paliano was a scion of the Colonna family, from the branch of the

Princes of Paliano The title Duke and Prince of Paliano is borne by the head of the elder line of the Colonna family. At times the honour has been borne by several members at once. The Princes also bear many other titles and honorifics. The Princes of Summonte ar ...

and the sub-branch of the Princes of Summonte (his elder brother Carlo would eventually succeed their uncle as 5th Prince of Summonte in 1956). He was the seventh child and fourth son of Don Stefano Colonna, dei principi di Paliano (1870-1948) (a son of the 3rd Prince of Summonte), and his wife Maria Dorotea Cianciulli (1875-1942). Marquess Guglielmo Imperiali (1858-1944), an influential diplomat and Italian ambassador to London during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, was the husband of his paternal aunt. Through his mother, he was a descendant of Michelangelo, Marquess Cianciulli (1734-1819), a jurist and Minister of Justice of the Kingdom of Naples, famous for settling the bill of law abolishing feudalism in that Kingdom. Guido Colonna himself graduated in law in 1930 from the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

. Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he served in America as Italy's vice-consul to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from 1934 to 1937 and then to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

from 1937 to 1939. From 1939 to 1940 he was secretary of the Italian embassy in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

. After the war, he was Secretary-General of the Italian delegation at the Marshall Plan negotiations (October 1947-March 1948), then Deputy Secretary-General of the

Organisation for European Economic Co-operation The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

(10 May 1948-July 1956). In 1956, he was appointed deputy general director for political affairs in the Italian foreign affairs ministry. He was promoted to the rank of minister on 20 October 1957. From December 1958 to July 1962, he was Italian ambassador to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

, succeeding Paolo Vita Finzi. He was deputy secretary general of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

from 1962 to 1964. On 30 July 1964 he succeeded Giuseppe Caron as European Commissioner for Internal Market & Services in the second

Hallstein Commission The Hallstein Commission is the European Commission that held office from 7 January 1958 to 30 June 1967. Its president was Walter Hallstein and held two separate mandates. Work It was the first commission on the European Economic Community and ...

and he remained in the succeeding

Rey Commission The Rey Commission is the European Commission that held office from 2 July 1967 to 30 June 1970. Its president was Jean Rey. Work It was the first commission of the merged European Communities. It was the successor to the Hallstein Commission a ...

of 1967 as Industry Commissioner until his resignation in May 1970 just before the commission's term of office expired. His resignation from the Rey Commission and the subsequent delay in appointing a successor confirmed reports that the Member States would not renew Rey's mandate that expired at the end of June 1970. After the end of his political career, Guido Colonna di Paliano returned to the private sector as President of the Italian department store chain "Rinascente". He also became a member of the

Trilateral Commission The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973 principally by American banker and philanthropist David ...

Personal life

On 8 June 1938 in New York, Colonna, at the time Italian vice consul at Toronto, married Tatiana Conus, daughter of Julius Conus (Yúlij Eduárdovič Konyús), a Russian pianist and composer of French origin, and of Princess Maria Alexandrovna

Lieven The House of Lieven ( lv, Līveni; russian: Ливен) is one of the oldest aristocratic families of Baltic Germans. History The family claims descent from Caupo of Turaida (Latvian, ''Kaupo''), the Livonian ''quasi rex'' who converted to C ...

. She was born in Moscow on 1 December 1916 and died in Milan on 29 July 2009. They had three children: Don Piero Colonna (born in Toronto 25 December 1938), Don Stefano Colonna (born in Cairo 21 March 1940) and Donna Maria Cristina Colonna (born in Stockholm 16 December 1941). On 23 June 1967, in Paris, the latter married Count Patrice de Vogüé (born in Paris 8 December 1928), descendant of the diplomat and archeologist

Melchior de Vogüé Charles-Jean-Melchior de Vogüé (18 October 182910 November 1916) was a French archaeologist, diplomat, and member of the Académie française in seat 18. Biography Born in Paris as the eldest son of Léonce de Vogüé, Melchior de Vogüé wa ...

and owner of

Vaux-le-Vicomte The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (English: Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte) is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas ...

, a famous historical French château which he received from his father on the day of his marriage. Tatiana Colonna and her children are the subject of a story told by Italian writer

Curzio Malaparte Curzio Malaparte (; 9 June 1898 – 19 July 1957), born Kurt Erich Suckert, was an Italian writer, filmmaker, war correspondent and diplomat. Malaparte is best known outside Italy due to his works ''Kaputt'' (1944) and ''La pelle'' (1949). The f ...

in his war novel ''Kaputt'' (published in 1944): she cures them of their fear of birds, brought on by their association of a sparrow trapped in their bedroom with the bombings they have experienced in Naples.Robert G. Walker, Malaparte and Literary Strangeness: a Critical Preface to ''Kaputt'': >

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Colonna di Paliano, Guido 1908 births 1982 deaths 20th-century diplomats Giuseppe Paliano Diplomats from Naples Italian European Commissioners Nobility from Naples Secretaries General of NATO Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany European Commissioners 1967–1970