Tourists return, artwork vandals return. A heritage at risk

The vandals? They are among us and scamper irresponsibly. No, we are not talking about the Germanic people who sacked Rome in 455 and whose crudeness and ferocity was described by Latin authors as so terrible to the point that their name has become a term in common use even today to identify those who between goliardia, political intent, arrogance, instinct for violence or for no reason at all deface, deface, destroy or damage anything. That of the vandal in Roman times was a ravenous destruction, driven by the Hun terror pressing eastward and the primal need to expand and survive, a destruction so bestial as to generate antonomasia. Let us speak of other vandals: those who neither loot nor ruin our cities, but likewise squander what is beautiful and of value to society. People of great insipience and ignorance who with gestures of various kinds unintentionally damage works of art not understanding their value (such as when they mount a statue to celebrate a scudetto or write childish phrases about the affective relationship of supposed love for a girl) or on the other hand people who understanding to the full extent of their symbolic value want to attract attention with striking gestures: striking a symbol of world culture is thus intended to strike back at society or the rulers of the day.

None of these motivations, of course, justifies such behavior, which unfortunately is frequently repeated, and in almost all cases the perpetrators are tourists. Tourism, then, the cross and delight of Italian culture with art cities at the top of the sad list of the most affected places.

More rarely it is artists or self-styled artists, such as the now notorious protester Vaclav Pisvejc who last March 9 in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria colored in yellow and blue (in honor of Ukraine) Francesco Vezzoli’s Rampant Lion, a work of contemporary art temporarily housed in front of Palazzo Vecchio. He was charged with defacement, and in case the paint did not go away after cleaning, the crime against him would become that of damage.

Such episodes have been repeated in our country for decades, so much so that over time controls have been tightened and protective devices installed, at least for works inside museums. For the many outdoor monuments, unfortunately, the risk remains high. The latest in order of time are the case of the Maserati that descending the steps caused damage to the steps of the monumental Trinità dei Monti and the demonstrative act that occurred at the Louvre when a man, pretending to be disabled, hurled a cake at the Mona Lisa. Scene captured on the cell phones of dozens of those present who documented how the man was making political claims to justify his act.

Historical vandalism

Among vandals there are also serial ones: in the 1990s of the last century Pietro Cannata, a former aesthetics student, rose to fame as he lashed out at art several times: in September 1991 he hammered Michelangelo’s David at the Accademia Gallery in Florence, breaking the second toe of his left foot. In April 1993, also in Florence, he struck the boar of Baccio Bandinelli’s sculptural group Hercules and Cacus in Piazza Signoria, which ended up toothless. In October of the same year in Prato, also in Tuscany, he scarred the Esequie di santo Stefano by Filippo Lippi in the city’s cathedral and then in December of the same year struck theAdorazione dei pastori by Michele di Raffaello delle Colombe in the church of Santa Maria delle Carceri in the same city. In 1999 he defaced with a felt-tip pen Pollock’s painting Wavy Paths at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome (a work valued at 800 million liras at the time), justifying himself to the police by saying, “I did it because it was the only way I could talk to a magistrate.” After these damages he was locked up in the judicial psychiatric prison in Montelupo Fiorentino.

There are no official statistics, but between damage, spray cans, markers and chewing gum the list is long. Among the most egregious was the one in 1972 to the damage of Michelangelo’s “Pieta” inside St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. It was May 21 when to the cry of “I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!”, Hungarian László Tóth burst into art history, winning the title of most famous vandal ever by striking the Pieta 15 times with a hammer, damaging the Virgin in particular, causing the left arm to come off, facial scarring, and shattered nose and eyelids. Again, in January 1989, a man in a wheelchair threw flammable liquid at Raphael’s Madonna of Foligno housed in the Vatican Museums, then attempted to set the painting on fire with a lighter. The custodians immediately intervene, extinguishing the fire.

Many then the incidents to the damage of fountains. In September 2011 one of the sculptures of the Fountain of the Moor in Piazza Navona was hit, and the same man later went on to hit the Trevi Fountain. In September 2005 the sad case of the Navicella at Villa Celimontana, one of Sansovino’s most important works. Vandals removed the prow of the fountain, smashing it into three parts with a hammer. And then the Fountain of the Rivers in 1998, the Fountain of the Bees in 2004, the Fountain of the Navigators in 2010, the Fountain of the Barcaccia in 2015 (attacked during the infamous riots caused by Feyenoord ultras) and the Biancone in Florence in 2005: in the latter case a young man, attempting to climb the monumental work of art, broke the right hand and staff of the Sea God while in 1997 the leg of one of the horses in the Fountain of Neptune had already been broken.

Staying in Florence, the countless cases of students on Giotto’s Campanile and the Dome of the Duomo da ubing exterior and interior walls should be mentioned. So much so that in 2016 the Opera del of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore decided on an extraordinary cleaning operation that took three months to erase the thousands of writings present left by generations of visitors by launching an innovative prevention mode to interrupt the craze of leaving messages in symbolic places (with dates, names, declarations of love, drawings ...): tablets were set up on the first, third and fourth floors of the bell tower, as if they were digital blackboards, where everyone can leave their own personalized writing in the desired style (pencil, brush, marker, spray). The messages are catalogued and stored in the Opera’s historical archives, where documents from seven centuries of the institution’s life are kept (from the construction of Brunelleschi’s Dome to the registers of baptized people, among which are illustrious names such as those of Amerigo Vespucci or the Mona Lisa). And those who later want to search for their inscription can do so on the special section of the site that collects all the messages sent to the Opera del Duomo. A solution so that the monument is not defaced without stifling the emotion of those who want to remember the moment of their visit. Eight months after the tablets were installed, the interior of Giotto’s Campanile was defaced by only nine pieces of graffiti, which were immediately removed by the Opera’s restorers, while visitors left as many as 15,484 writings on Autography’s digital stations.

Criminal aspects for vandals

How much risk do those who commit these acts face? In March of this year, Parliament unanimously approved a law strongly desired by Culture Minister Dario Franceschini that had begun its process in the last legislature (where he held the same position) and that finally becomes State Law by introducing new criminal offenses in this field and tightening the penalties for crimes already typified.

The new law places in the Penal Code, with an expressly dedicated title, the criminal offenses currently divided between the Penal Code and the Code of Cultural Heritage; introduces aggravating factors when the object of common offenses is cultural property; and strengthens investigative tools to combat crimes against cultural heritage by also authorizing telephone and environmental wiretapping. The measure inserts into the Penal Code a new title, dedicated to crimes against cultural heritage, consisting of 17 new articles, by which it punishes, with harsher penalties than those provided for the corresponding simple crimes, theft, embezzlement, receiving stolen goods, money laundering and self-laundering, and damage that have cultural property as their object.

For example, the new, autonomous crime figure of “theft of cultural property” is introduced, as well as the crime of “unlawful possession” of cultural property, punishable by imprisonment of up to 8 years and fines of up to 20,000 euros to target those who buy a work knowing that its provenance is unlawful. The severity hits counterfeiters and also the authors of false appraisals and those who put these forgeries on the market. The penalty for violations and alienations is increased (up to 2 years and 80,000 euros fine). The penalty for receiving stolen goods is also increased when it involves a cultural good

With regard to our topic, the new norm elevates the crimes of destruction, damage as well as defacement or defacement of cultural or landscape heritage to autonomous special cases by providing penalties of up to three years in prison in addition to a fine of up to 10 thousand euros. Those who deface and loot museums, archives, archaeological areas and monuments as well as a landscape property can be punished with imprisonment of up to 16 years. In addition, all crimes against cultural heritage that create significant damage will have the penalty increased from one-third to one-half.

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