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.
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