Vatican condemns art 'eco-vandalism'

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 26 - The Vatican has condemned so-called 'eco-vandalism' targetting cultural heritage in a document on tourism by Rino Fisichella, the Pro-prefect for New Evangelization.
    The issue is topical as civil-disobedience groups such as Italy's Ultima Generazione (Last Generation - UG) have started to target artworks and monuments in protests aimed at highlighting the need to tackle the climate crisis. A hearing took place in the Vatican on Wednesday in the trial of three UG members over a stunt in which two ofthem glued themselves to the pedestal supporting the Laocoon statue in the Vatican Museums last summer.
    "It is useful to reiterate that the protection of artworks that have been humanity's heritage for centuries and have become attractions for tourists from all over the work is the responsibility of everyone," Fisichella wrote.
    "So every form of violence that attacks their conservation must be condemned with conviction".
    UG and its sister groups in other parts of the world say they do not like staging disruptive and controversial protests, but see no alternative as decades of efforts to get leaders to stop the greenhouse-gas emissions that are driving humanity towards climate breakdown via traditional methods of protest have proved fruitless.
    UG's protests targetting monuments have featured the use of easy-to-wash-off paint and their 'attacks' on artworks have tended to regard the protective screens, rather than the works themselves.
    Pope Francis has repeatedly told the international community to address the climate crisis and on Thursday called for an end to the "senseless war against creation".
    Last year United Nations Secretary General António Guterres defended climate protestors.
    "Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals," he said via Twitter.
    "But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.
    "Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness". (ANSA).