Artist plasters city walls with portraits in diver masks

(ANSA) - Florence, April 24 - A mysterious anonymous artist has plastered streets in Florence and Rome with portraits of Dante Alighieri, Botticelli's Venus, Pablo Picasso and even Jesus Christ wearing scuba divers' masks on faces as part of a series entitled "Art can swim." The artist, who identifies himself only as "Blub" to protect his anonymity, recently added the late Latin American writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez to his series, naturally also depicted in a diver's mask. Blub also has posted up his esoteric portraits in Rome, including one of Pope Francis.
    He says he started painting in Spain. "I started by chance, even if for me there is no such thing as coincidence," he said. "Then I continued because the impact on people inspired me to go on...I like it when people ask me to put up a print where it has been torn down, or when they themselves stick it back up with sellotape".