The sculpture “Venere degli stracci” (“Venus of rags”, in Spanish), designed by Michelangelo Pistoletto and installed outdoors in the center of Naples (southern Italy), was completely destroyed early in the morning by a fire whose origin is being investigated . The flames have reduced to ashes the work of artwhich was inaugurated a few weeks ago in front of the Beverello pier, and for the moment the hypothesis rules out a self-combustion since it did not contain any electronic device, the local media pointed out.

Pistoletto himself inaugurated this installation on June 28 as a large-scale reproduction of another piece produced in 1967 and in which a copy of “Venus of the apple” by Bertel Thorvaldsen is surrounded by a mountain of rags. According to the artist, the work contrasts the balance and forms of classical art with the disorder of modern life. Likewise, there are several versions of the “Venus of the Rags” in Italy, in the Pistoletto Foundation in Biella, the Rivoli Castle and the Contemporary Museum of Naples, as well as another in the Tate Gallery in Liverpool.

The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, has assumed that it is a arson when reacting to the event, after which he has assured that he feels “dismayed” by an act of “great violence”, since “when art and beauty are attacked, man is attacked” “Naples is beauty, restart and regeneration and not We cannot and do not want to stop before acts of vandalism. This is the last, 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 they already do in our city,” he added. .

Michelangelo Olivero Pistoletto (Biella, 1933) is an Italian artist, painter and sculptor vinculcated in the Arte Povera movementan artistic movement that emerged in Italy that is characterized by using humble and poor materials in its works.