The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome today opened an investigation against the nine climate activists who stained the water of the Trevi Fountain with charcoal this Sunday in protest against the climate crisis, after identification and report by the police.

Although the monument, one of the symbols of Italy around the world, has not suffered any permanent damage, activists have been charged with deteriorating cultural heritage by using it illegally, according to local authorities, according to local media.

The action took place on Sunday morning, when nine activists of the collective “Ultima Generazione” against climate change, painted black the waters of the monumental Fontana, a masterpiece of the Roman Baroque and one of the symbols of the city all over the world.

Immediately afterwards, they entered the interior and put up a banner demanding to stop investing in fossil fuels, while the tourists who visited the monument reacted with boos.

Thanks to the police’s “quick” intervention, the activists were able to pour out only two of the “many” canisters of charcoal-based dye they were carrying, Rome’s mayor Roberto Gualtieri explained.

“According to an initial verification, there is no permanent damage because the black paint ended up on the waterproofed material and not on the marble, so that should be cleanable. The problem is when it reaches the marble, it is porous,” the alderman explained to the media.

Other monuments attacked

It is not the first time that these activists attack heritage with actions like this.

A few weeks ago, another group of the same collective painted black the water of the Fountain of the Four Rivers, located in Rome’s central Piazza Navona and designed in 1648 by the Baroque artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

They donated on April 1 Black tint on the historic Barcaccia Fountain in Rome’s Spanish Steps, built between 1626 and 1629. Earlier, on March 17, two other juveniles spotted orange paint the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, seat of the Town Hall, and they were arrested by the mayor himself, Dario Nardella.

In November, they pitched soup to a Van Gogh painting from a temporary exhibition in Rome and they stained with painting “The Finger” by Maurizio Cattelan in front of the Milan Stock Exchange, next to the equestrian statue of Vittorio Emanuele II in front of the Duomo or the cathedral of that city.

In addition, two activists are on trial in the Vatican Tribunal in protest, damage the base of this Laocoon sculpture with glue.

The Italian government has approved a bill that would allow the perpetrators of acts of vandalism against works of art, monuments or heritage with fines of up to 60,000 euros or criminal sanctions.