Opinion
By Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu
Does the name ‘Agnelli’ ring a familiar bell? Yes, you guessed right. It’s the same Agnelli of Fiat fame. Clara Jeanne Agnelli was an Italian heiress and granddaughter of Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of FIAT AUTOMOBILES.
She remains one of Biafra’s unsung heroines. She was arguably the most compassionate member of Italy’s ruling industrial dynasty. She was so involved in the Biafran cause, organizing events to raise awareness concerning the plight of Biafrans. At great risk to her safety and against all cautious counsel, in November 1968 in the heat of the Biafra War, Clara Agnellli flew into the breakaway state of Biafra to donate funds to the Biafra leader, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and the embattled people of Biafra on behalf of the Agnelli family.
This was a woman of uncommon and true grit, who was bold, compassionate and unconventional. She was born in Turin on April 7, 1920, to Edoardo Agnelli, and a Duchess Donna Virginia Bourbon del Monte. In 1935, when Agnelli was fifteen years old, her father died in an airplane crash. Her mother died in a car accident in 1945.
Carla Agnelli married Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg, an Austro Hungarian prince in 1938 when she was just eighteen years old, even though she was in love with someone else, an actor, called Giovanni Nuvoletti, whom she had met six years earlier. Nevertheless, the couple had three children, Prince Egon von Fürstenberg (The famous fashion designer who originated ‘The Power Look’ and married the famous designer Diane Von Fürstenberg), Princess Ira von Fürstenberg (who became a famous actress) and Prince Sebastien von Fürstenberg (who founded the bank named Banca IFIS).
Some years into her marriage, she ran off with Nuvoletti and the two were eventually arrested, as adultery was illegal in Italy at the time. She had to sign a legal document renouncing her relationship with Nuvoletti in return for an annuity. Once the divorce was legalized in Italy, Agnelli married her true love Nuvoletti in 1974 in a civil ceremony and moved into the Villa Papadopoli. After the death of her first husband, Prince Tassilo Zu Fürstenberg, she and Nuvoletti had a Catholic wedding ceremony at her villa’s chapel in 1989. Her sister, Susanna became Italy’s first female foreign minister in the mid-1990s.
She continued to commit her life to charitable causes and died on July 19, 2016, aged 96.
Thank you, Clara. We remember!
**Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu is the widow of late Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, leader of the defunct Biafra– Jul. 20, 2020 @ 10:19 GMT
Tags: Clara Agnelli: Remembering a woman of uncommon grit
