scandal involving an alleged Romanian thief who died following a hunger strike in Kraków, Poland, where he had been arrested. Romania's consular services were faulted for not intervening in his defense. "Greatest Romanians" controversy In autumn 2006, he was selected by TVR 1 to take part in the televised poll to determine the greatest Romanian, during which he was to showcase the career of Conducător Ion Antonescu, Romania's World War II dictator; the public had already selected Antonescu as one of the top 10 entries. Like other intellectuals chosen to take part in the campaign, each supporting a particular entry, Cioroianu narrated a short documentary film, and was subsequently involved in debates on the TVR 1 set (during two separate rounds of voting). Unlike all other participants, he chose to base his account of Antonescu on criticism, exposing, among others, war crimes against the Jewish and Roma communities during the Holocaust (in Transnistria and elsewhere), as well as Antonescu's unquestioned support for Adolf Hitler (see Romania during World War II), while arguing that Antonescu was a mediocre politician. The Romanian Academy's National Institute for the Study of Totalitarianism reacted to the program, accusing TVR 1 of mounting an overt campaign to denigrate Antonescu. It also questioned the fact that Cioroianu, a member of the Senate Committee on Culture, had accepted payment with public funds for his presence on the show. Criticism was also voiced by Ziua newspaper, which asked why the Television had not handed the office to a public person with more positive views of the former Romanian leader, and argued that Cioroianu had used his position to shame those who had voted for Antonescu. In response, Cioroianu indicated that he had been invited on set as a history professor, not as an Antonescu defender or a senator, and argued that his was a version determined by research (arguing that the latter is "the best cure against all sorts of mythologies and clichés"). Works Authored Scrum de secol. O sută una poveşti suprapuse ("The Ashes of a Century. A Hundred and One Superimposed Stories"), Editura Curtea Veche, Bucharest, 2001 Focul ascuns în piatră. Despre istorie, memorie şi alte vanităţi contemporane ("The Fire Hidden in Stone. On History, Memory and Other Contemporary Vanities"), Polirom, Iaşi, 2002 Ce Ceausescu qui hante les Roumains: le mythe, les représentations et le culte du Dirigeant dans la Roumanie communiste ("This Ceauşescu Who Is Haunting