Romanian poet Mircea Dinescu wants to sell the sweater he wore on television during the 1989 anti-communist revolution.
Along with Romanian actor Ion Caramitru who rode to the television station on a tank, the two were key popular figures who conducted the first televised revolution from the newly liberated television studios.
They announced the fall of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and appealed to people to remain calm and to not believe disinformation. They appeared in the famous ‘Studio 4’ after Ceausescu fled and until his execution on December 25.
Now that communism has ended and Romania has a market economy, “It’s time for me to earn something from it,” the irreverent poet joked.
The sweater which is dark blue or black has red and white stripes. The poet wore a white shirt under the sweater which gave him a casual and youthful look, a far cry from the stiff, grey figures Romanians were used to seeing on television.
In the final months of the communist regime. Dinescu, now 71, was held under house arrest which gave him credibility during the bloody uprising where more than 1,100 people died.
Popular actor Ion Caramitru who spoke eloquently and passionately to Romanians during the revolt, died in September.
In an appearance on Prima TV on Sunday, Mircea Dinescu said: “I have it somewhere and I want to auction it. In capitalism, I should earn something,” he said.
He said he was disappointed. “I thought Comrade Iliescu (former President Ion Iliescu) would come with communism with a human face. Instead he brought capitalism with an inhuman face.”
Ion Caramitru, Romanian actor, theater director and prominent face of anti-communist revolution dies
