Overview
A 1973 account circulated by the Sidereal Intercontacts Centre (SIC) in Turin, Italy, described a man named Absu Imaily Swandy as a 256-year-old extraterrestrial who periodically visited Earth. According to material reproduced by Alien Archivist, the alleged visitor met selected individuals in northern Italy, particularly around Turin and the Canavese area. The account has recently resurfaced in an online post, but the supplied material contains no independent evidence confirming Swandy’s identity, age or extraterrestrial origin.
The story is linked to a bearded portrait that had appeared several years earlier in the archive of Turin ufologist Arduino Albertini. The photograph was reportedly preserved in 1969 with a handwritten note identifying the subject as “G. (perhaps Gaetano) DURANTE.” The note described him as a “strange and mysterious character” who traveled around Italy and abroad and was believed to be more than 80 years old. It also listed a passport number and a temporary mailing address at Rome’s Poste Restante for October 27–31, 1969.
The Turin Claims
The SIC began distributing notices about Absu Imaily Swandy in Turin during 1973, using the same or a similar portrait. The group claimed that Swandy was 256 years old and referred to meetings at San Giusto Canavese, near Turin. Those claims gained wider attention later that year as the SIC promoted what it called a “grandiosa manifestazione sul Musinè,” or “grand event on Musinè,” a mountain near Turin.
A notice dated December 11 reportedly stated, “Arderà il Musinè”—roughly, “Musinè will burn.” Three days later, fires attributed to arson broke out on Monte Musinè while a UFO conference was taking place at Turin’s Circolo della Stampa. The available account does not establish that the SIC caused or predicted the fires, but the timing became part of the mythology surrounding the Swandy story and the organization’s activities.
Media Exposure and Continuing Promotion
The photograph began appearing in the Italian press in December 1973. Il nostro tempo published it on December 16, followed by Panorama on December 20. According to Luigi Vacchi’s Panorama article, Swandy had allegedly been seen in Piedmont and the Canavese and had spoken at private meetings attended by a small circle of followers.
The SIC continued circulating notices in 1974, including an announcement of a public conference at which Absu was said to have promised to appear. In 1975, the group reportedly distributed an image of an alleged “Llion-type” UFO craft said to be used by Swandy, along with a photograph of Nerea, described as an Italian base for UFO landings and departures. No corroborating documentation for the craft, the base or the alleged meetings is provided in the source material.
Later Images and Unresolved Questions
The last known photograph published as Absu reportedly appeared on March 14, 1991, showing a man apparently speaking or gesturing at a gathering. However, the archival note identifying the earlier portrait as “G. (perhaps Gaetano) Durante” presents a significant unresolved discrepancy. The available information does not show whether the photograph was misidentified, deliberately repurposed, or connected to a real individual whose identity was later transformed within UFO circles.
As presented, the account remains an unverified historical UFO claim rather than evidence of extraterrestrial contact. The surviving notices, press references and photographs document how the story circulated, but they do not independently substantiate the extraordinary claims attributed to Absu Imaily Swandy or the SIC.
