Works of art damaged, scarred, sometimes even destroyed by hatred and ignorance or targeted by young people trying to get attention and express their ideas in an absolutely execrable way. We are witnessing, more and more frequently, the disfigurement of priceless heritage works of our beautiful country, which instead deserve to be safeguarded and respected. Last, in chronological order, is the act of vandalism against the Vasari Corridor of Florence, smeared in the night by unknown persons. The acronym DKS 7 appeared on 1860 pillars of the famous monument at dawn this morning. As if that weren't enough, yesterday evening, a fire, the nature of which the Arma soldiers are investigating, completely destroyed the "Dragon of Vaia", the majestic wooden sculpture created by Marco Martalar on Alpe Cimbra.
The indignation of Mayor Nardella
The very serious act of vandalism against the Vasari Corridor in Florence was announced this morning by the mayor of the city, Dario Nardella. The mayor, in a post published on Facebook, expressed his outrage at the incident, informing that "an investigation with the municipal police" was immediately launched and that "cameras and tools available will be used to prevent similar crimes to locate these despicable individuals in order to punish them properly”. The Vasari Corridor is an elevated path that connects Palazzo Vecchio with Palazzo Pitti, passing through the Uffizi and above the Ponte Vecchio, built in 1565 to a design by the architect Giorgio Vasari.
Sangiuliano: "The eco-vandal bill will soon be law"
The act of vandalism was also harshly condemned by the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, who declared: "The carabinieri are at work analyzing the video recordings and following up the various connected clues". Schmidt then pointed out: “Clearly this is not the whim of a drunk but a premeditated act, and I recall that in cases of this kind in the United States there is a prison sentence of up to five years. Enough with symbolic punishments and imaginative extenuating circumstances! Here we need the hard fist of the law!”. The Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, expressed harsh words against the culprits of the crazy gesture: “The Vasari Corridor in Florence is a symbolic place of our heritage. Those responsible for the act must be immediately identified and punished. From now on zero tolerance. Soon the "eco-vandal" bill passed by the government will be law: whoever damages pays from his own pocket".
Vandalism in Florence, the latest in a long series
What happened in Florence is – as we know – only the latest in a long series of acts of vandalism to the detriment of our artistic heritage. How can we forget the disfigurement in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, which took place on August 7th by three writers? Or the attacks on paintings and sculptures by self-styled climate and environmental activists? All of this is unacceptable. Anyone who commits such crimes deserves exemplary punishment.
A fire (arson?) destroys the imposing Dragon of Vaia
Even what happened in Trentino Alto Adige could turn out to be an act of vandalism. The Vaia Dragon by sculptor Marco Martalar was completely destroyed in the fire that broke out yesterday evening in the locality Magrè from Lavarone (Trent). The immediate intervention of the volunteer firefighters in the area was useless. When they arrived at the scene, the wooden sculpture was already engulfed in flames. The artwork, a majestic dragon about six meters high and seven meters long, was made by Martalar on Alpe Cimbra using the wood resulting from the Vaia storm of 2018.
Investigators are not ruling out the malicious trail. On social media, the mayor of Lavarone, Isaac Corradi, he wrote: “I really hope it is not of malicious origin. It was a work of great appeal that regenerated the area with an important message on the environmental front. The 'Lavarone green land' project does not stop because it is very large and we will be able to start again, we will evaluate the next steps in the next few hours. The damage remains for the whole of Trentino".
Photo: Michelangelo Buonarroti; The municipality of Milan; Marco Albino Ferrari (Facebook pages)