A private citizen has taken action
to protect the only remaining work in Naples by England-based
street artist Banksy, titled "Madonna With Gun", a stencil
located on the side of a building in Piazza dei Girolamini.
The artist's only two works in Italy were both located in
Naples, but the first, in Via Benedetto Croce, was covered over
by a graffiti writer in 2010.
That work was an interpretation of Bernini's Blessed
Ludovica Albertoni, holding a fast food hamburger and french
fries as a symbol of consumerism.
In "Madonna with Gun", Banksy painted a gun in place of a
halo on the Virgin Mary, whose glance is towards a votive niche
that's no longer present but was just a few feet away when the
artist originally stencilled his work.
Mariano Russo, a 43-year-old building administrator, said
he became aware of the work when he was browsing online and
found a petition soliciting signatures in an initiative to
protect it.
"I found various online initiatives to contribute to the
work's conservation," Russo told ANSA.
"In particular I found an online petition, which I signed,
and various appeals inviting the community to take action to
save the work of the English street artist," he said.
"Thinking of the destiny the English artist's work had in
via Benedetto Croce, I decided to do something to save the
Madonna, both from environmental effects as well as, above all,
acts of vandalism," Russo said.
"I went right to action: I took the wall's measurements, I
tracked down and contacted the building's administrator and
asked for authorisation. Immediately after, I bought the
plexiglass needed, and, with the help of a trusted builder, we
installed the covering," he said.
The plexiglass plate leaves space to allow air to circulate
and avoid condensation build-up.
Russo said he wants to send a message with his action.
"I could have remained perfectly anonymous, that absolutely
wouldn't have been a problem for me," he said.
"But I was interested in telling this brief story to show
that all of us can do something, even small, but useful. To
those who ask me why I did it, I simply respond: I felt the
need".
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