Arezzo risks losing two important murals: the building housing them will be torn down

In Arezzo, there is a race against time to save two murals created in 2015 by two prominent artists, Moneyless and Eron, as part of the Icastica event. The murals decorate the facades of a building, formerly the headquarters of the Cadorna barracks, in Piazza della Misericordia (thus in the city’s historic center): however, the administration wants to tear down the building as part of a redevelopment project in the area to build a new three-story building in its place.

This is not new news: speculation about the redevelopment of the Misericordia Square area has been going on since at least 2017, when in September of that year Mayor Alessandro Ghinelli had already expressed the idea of tearing down the walls with the works of Eron and Moneyless. This had resulted in a petition signed by more than 3,000 citizens, public figures (including singer and actor Frankie Hi-Nrg) had also moved, and the issue eventually died down. However, the news is back in the news because now the redevelopment project has been approved, complete with demolition: the public works councillor, Alessandro Casi, has made it known that the building has several structural problems and therefore there is no other solution than demolition.

There had also been no shortage of proposals to save the two murals: in particular, there had been a proposal to renovate the building without demolishing it, which has now fallen through. So what to do to save the works of Moneyless and Eron? Art critic Daniele Sensi spoke on the issue today: “If the junta has decided to proceed, it means that the two works, and consequently the building that houses them, do not enjoy any kind of constraint from the superintendence and that they do not enjoy any consideration, whether artistic or economic,” he said in the introduction. “Not only do the palace not like them, but other institutions are not interested in them either. I have not sensed any uprising from the region on down. I therefore believe that there is only one solution, to ask the City of Arezzo to give me ownership of the two murals, to sell them to me and thus save them from destruction. For many years I have been fighting for the preservation of the city’s cultural heritage, I have often drawn attention to the precariousness of the preservation of the Municipal Gallery’s collection, I have successfully attempted the re-evaluation of artists and experiences of the second half of the twentieth century in Arezzo, and I believe that in respect of this path, acquiring the two endangered works is in line with my character, having already saved from dispersion works by great Arezzo protagonists. I have the space and exhibition possibilities not to lose these two masterpieces, certainly decontextualizing them will be a shame but they will be usable and saved. The municipality will decide on costs and timing and I will take action on the necessary procedures.”

So the only solution would be to rip the two murals out and relocate them elsewhere: it would be a loss of context, but it is certainly a better solution than losing the works tout court. We will see how the matter develops.

Pictured is the mural of Moneyless

Arezzo risks losing two important murals: the building housing them will be torn down

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