Venus of rags fire in Naples, 32-year-old local man detained

A 32-year-old Neapolitan man, homeless and accused of being responsible for the fire that destroyed Michelangelo Pistoletto ’s Venus of rags installed as a monumental version in Naples ’ Municipio Square , has been detained. The man was stopped after investigations by the mobile squad of the Naples police headquarters and the Decumani police station analyzed images from surveillance cameras in the square, where the work had been installed last June 28. The young man was apprehended in a cafeteria on Via Marina and now faces charges of arson and destruction of cultural property.

Two cans of flammable liquid were found near the skeleton of the work. Nothing was left of the work: the clothes were burned to ashes, while the statue melted from the heat (only the skeleton holding up the rags remained).

A few hours after the news of the burning, Michelangelo Pistoletto himself, in video statements, had commented on the news: “reason must win, always,” he said. “But on the other hand, emotion and reason always exist and are a duality that must find an agreement, a balance, a harmony.” And in conclusion, “This ragged society has unfortunately taken over, it is like a self-blame of the worst side of humanity.” The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, after expressing his “dismay” at an act of “great violence,” which leaves one “dumbfounded,” because “when you attack art and beauty, you attack man,” said the municipality will redo the work. “I say right away that we will remake this installation. I heard Pistoletto this morning, this is a great symbol of regeneration, it represents the restart of society and it cannot be stopped, neither by vandalism nor by violence, but it must be carried forward.” In fact, the City Council will launch “a fundraiser, precisely to make sure that this reconstruction also happens from popular participation. Naples is about beauty, restarting and regeneration, he adds-we cannot stop and we will not stop in the face of acts of vandalism. This is the latest, but there have been others and they are the expression of a very large minority. We will do many of them again until art and beauty prevail as they already prevail in our city.”

And from the city council rises the proposal of Domenico Brescia, councilor of Azzurri Noi Sud Napoli Viva, who proposed that his colleagues donate their July allowances to rebuild the work. “Everyone,” he said, “must do their part and take responsibility. The burning of the Venus of rags, which occurred in the early hours of the day, cannot remain without a strong response from Neapolitan politics. [...] A strong signal of concrete solidarity from us Naples City Councilors could be the devolution of July allowances as a down payment for the extraordinary restoration work that Mayor Manfredi will want to commission as a matter of urgency.”

Venus of rags fire in Naples, 32-year-old local man detained

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