Records show only some scholarship funding from the Fascist government, and a pledge of antique furniture “to be obtained in Italy through the help of Mussolini”—but this donation never materialized, and the furnishings and artwork came instead from domestic patrons.

[4] McKim, Mead & White, the firm responsible for the layout of Columbia's campus, created an impressive design for the Casa Italiana, modeled on the Roman palazzi of the Renaissance.

When completed in 1927, it stood on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 117th Street, clad entirely in limestone on the west and south facades (which set it apart from all the other brick-clad buildings on campus, except for the imposing, limestone-clad Low Library).

[6] In 2012, a lawsuit filed by the Italic Institute, an advocacy group, in conjunction with the surviving Paterno Family, claimed that Columbia had breached its responsibilities in regard to the building's use.

It claimed that the University violated the donative intent of 1927 by converting the building from a cultural center opened to the students of Columbia and the seat of the Department of Italian to a restricted research facility.