Italians won't pay for eco-vandals any more - Sangiuliano

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 18 - Italians won't have to pay for acts of 'eco-vandalism' any more, Vulture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said after the passage of a law levying fines of up to 60,000 euros for anyone who defaces cultural heritage amid a string of such acts of civil disobedience by climate activists.
    "A principle of respect for national culture has been enacted: whoever defaces, damages or otherwise spoils a monument must compensate the state for the expenses incurred to restore the original state of the monument," said the minister.
    "Given that, as a large number of cases show, large sums have to be spent for restoration, it is good that it is no longer the Italians who pay but those who are responsible for the acts of damage"..
    Ultima Generazione (UG) has staged a series of controversial headline-grabbing protests in the last two years including pouring red liquid over themselves outside Florence cathedral and gluing themselves to the iconic Laocoon statuary group in the Vatican Museums.
    In May last year a protest at the Giro d'Italia by three UG members was thwarted as the trio was dragged away from the road at Meolo near Venice before they could stop a breakaway group of four riders from racing past.
    Earlier that month UG staged another act of civil disobedience to highlight the need to tackle the climate crisis when two protestors covered themselves in mud outside the Senate in Rome.
    Three UG members are currently on trial in Rome for spraying easy-to-wash-off paint over the facade of the Senate last January.
    Last October several UG activists were fined 3,300 euros each for public indecency after stripping naked and blocking traffic in a flash mob on a central Turin bridge.
    Other UG members were indicted Wednesday for spraying wash-offable paint over Maurizio Cattelan's L.O.V.E. sculpture in Milan a year ago. (ANSA).