Florence, very serious act of vandalism against Lorenzo Bartolini's masterpiece. Beheaded allegory of Demidoff monument.

Very bad news from Florence, where a masterpiece by Lorenzo Bartolini (Savignano di Prato, 1777 - Florence, 1850), the monument to Nicola Demidoff, suffered a serious act of vandalism overnight. One of theallegories that make up the group, theallegory of wealth, depicted as a woman embracing Pluto, the god of wealth, as a child, was in fact targeted: a finger of the personification of wealth was detached, while the god Pluto was decapitated. The damage, according to initial expert estimates, would amount to 20,000 euros. But more than the economic damage, it is the moral damage that hurts: the work, left at the mercy of hooligans, will be compensated with a restoration (fortunately the vandals did not take away the head, which was found on the ground), but in essence no intervention will be able to give the statue its original material integrity.

No one saw the hooligans in action: they probably climbed on the statue by means of the pigeon lattice. The damage was noticed by passersby in the early hours of this morning: officers of the Municipal Police were called, who could do no more than note what had happened and attempt to reconstruct the action of the vandals. Investigations have already begun to ascertain responsibility for the damage, and restorers will soon conduct analyses on the sculpture to assess what to do.

The work, located in Florence’s Piazza Demidoff, is one of the most famous by Lorenzo Bartolini, Italy’s greatest exponent of purism in sculpture, and among the leading artists of his time. The artist created the monument, which was meant to celebrate the Russian philanthropist Nikolaj Demidov (Italianized as Nicola Demidoff), over a fairly long period of time, between 1830 and 1850, but it was not unveiled until 1870, 20 years after Bartolini’s death. The commissioners were his sons Anatoli and Pyotr, who had asked the Tuscan artist for a work worthy of celebrating their father who died in 1828. Demidoff appears seated above a high plinth, along with his son Anatoli and the allegory of gratitude. At his feet, in the four corners, appear as many allegories: mercy, which alludes to Demidov’s philanthropic activities, depicted as a woman feeding a child; wealth, which refers to the mines Demidoff owned in Siberia; the muse of festivities, a symbol of the parties Demidoff used to throw at his estates; and finally, truth, depicted, as per typical iconography, as a naked young woman holding a mirror. The model of the work is kept at the Museo di Palazzo Pretorio in Prato.

Pictured is the damaged allegory. Ph. Credit Yair Haklai

Florence, very serious act of vandalism against Lorenzo Bartolini's masterpiece. Beheaded allegory of Demidoff monument.

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