A 32-year-old homeless person was arrested today in Naples, in southern Italy, accused of being the author of the fire that destroyed the contemporary installation by the Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, placed on June 28 in that city.
The homeless man was located in a community cafeteria after Italian police checked images from the city's video surveillance system.
The work "La Venere degli Stracci" (The Venus in rags), placed in the central Plaza del Municipio, is composed of a statue representing Venus next to a huge mountain of rags, one of Pistoletto's icons, which was completely destroyed in the fire , which was immediately concluded to have been intentional and the responsibility of the homeless person.
The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, said he was "dismayed" by an act of "great violence" because "when art and beauty are attacked, man is attacked"
"Naples is beauty, fresh start and regeneration and we cannot and do not want to stop acts of vandalism. This is the last one, but there have been others and they are the expression of a very large minority. We will do much more so that art and beauty prevail as already do in our city", he added.
Michelangelo Olivero Pistoletto (Biella, 1933) is an Italian artist, painter and sculptor linked to the Arte Povera movement, an artistic movement that emerged in Italy and is characterized by using humble and poor materials in his works.