(Rome) The Venus with ragsone of contemporary Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s best-known sculptures, was destroyed in an arson attack in Naples on Wednesday, authorities said after arresting a 32-year-old homeless man.
The ten-meter high installation, which represents a statue of the Roman goddess of beauty, love and fertility facing a large pile of colored clothes thrown on the ground, was in the open air near of the town hall, where it had been installed on June 28 in the presence of the mayor and the artist.
The mayor of the southern metropolis, Gaetano Manfredi, said the fire on Wednesday at dawn was “an act of great violence that leaves us speechless”, and promised that the installation would be rebuilt.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, for his part, was “filled with bitterness and hurt” by this act of “vandalism”, added Mr. Manfredi after speaking with the artist, who wanted this fire to be “interpreted by us as a (chance for) a new start”.
PHOTO ANSA / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“The world is going up in flames anyway. The same spirits that wage war are those that set Venus on fire,” said artist Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Passers-by placed flowers and small notes next to the ashes of the installation: “May a better city be reborn from your ashes”, says one of these notes, quoted by the daily Il Corriere della Sera.
After reviewing footage from neighborhood surveillance cameras, police arrested a 32-year-old homeless man on suspicion of arson and destroying art, according to Il Corriere.
There are several versions of the Venus with ragswhich juxtaposes an iconic figure of classical culture and beauty with the detritus of contemporary society, in various museums around the world.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, 90, is considered one of the major representatives of the Italian artistic movement Arte Povera. His works have been exhibited in New York, London and Paris.