Naples, petition to have man who set fire to Venus of Rags released from prison

The events surrounding theburning of the monumental version of Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venus of Rags continue in Naples. Meanwhile, the judges of the court of re-examination confirmed jail time for Simone Isaia, the 32-year-old homeless man arrested on July 12 and accused of being the perpetrator. Isaia, who has no criminal record, therefore remains in the Poggioreale cell where he is being held, although it will be necessary to await the reasons why the Re-examination Court (which in any case shares the prosecutor’s thesis that the man is the sole perpetrator of the fire) confirmed the measure.

Video surveillance images show the 32-year-old man getting closer than anyone else to the sculpture, plus, at the time he was stopped, he was found in possession of lighters but not cigarettes. On this basis the charge was laid. The young man, however, has always denied all charges. At present Isaiah remains charged with arson and destruction of cultural property.

Also in the past few hours, a petition asking for the young man’s release from prison started at the same time. “Simone Isaia, the homeless man accused of setting fire to the ’Venus of rags’ installation in Piazza Municipio in Naples, needs to be cared for, not jail,” reads the text (available on change.org) drafted by Iod Edizioni, the Associazione Liberi di volare, and the Naples Church Prison Pastoral, the Evangelical Free Christian Church of Casalnuovo, and United Colors of Naples. All are asking institutions to take care of Simone Isaia. “Simone,” say volunteers at the Mensa del Carmine, where the young man often went for lunch, “had long since lost lucidity and references, ending up sleeping on the streets. Simone Isaia needs help. Not jail, but a facility to help him get his life back on track, because he is a person with a very tangible neuro-divergence. Until four years ago Simone Isaia worked as a busboy in a bar on Via Chiaia and was more than appreciated by customers for his courteous ways. Then something in him broke, he got lost, and over the years, his mental condition worsened.”

“If it is true, as Mayor Manfredi says, that ’When you attack art and beauty, you attack man,’” the petition text concludes, “well, we affirm that the best art and beauty of public institutions, and not only, is to care for men who are ragged, sick, and abandoned to a fate with no return. We ask for your support with a signature so that Simone Isaiah will be taken out of prison and be cared for and regenerated to life at the Prison Pastoral Care Home.”

The association’s cause is also supported by Pistoletto himself, who relaunched the text of the petition with a story on Instagram, and then commented on the initiative in an interview with Corriere della Sera. “I immediately thought I wanted to meet this person. I wanted to understand what was behind his gesture. However, I did not want to insist. But I am happy there is an initiative like this. This person needs care and not punishment in prison.” This person, Pistoletto continued, “is not just a sick person, but shows the social disease we live with. Governments are fighting to allow people to survive. And culture, which comes from art, can help this change.”

Finally, there is the issue of theinstallation, which Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi wants to make permanent. “I have heard from master Pistoletto, who is reworking the work,” he said in response to a question in the city council, “and he has expressed maximum willingness in the realization of the new intervention and also with respect to the possibility of then being able to leave the work to the municipality so that, in the case, it can also be placed in a permanent space after a period of public display in Piazza Municipio.”

Naples, petition to have man who set fire to Venus of Rags released from prison

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