Rome mayor calls for stop to 'absurd' attacks on monuments

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 21 - Activists engaged in acts of civil disobedience to draw attention to the climate crisis must stop their "absurd" attacks on the city's monuments and seek forms of confrontation that do not jeopardise art heritage, Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said on Sunday.
    His call came after member of Italy's Last Generation (Ultima Generazione - UG) poured black liquid made from diluted vegetable charcoal into the Trevi fountain.
    "Enough of these absurd attacks on our artistic heritage," said Gualtieri.
    "Today (the activists) daubed the Trevi Fountain. (It will be) costly and complex to restore, in the hope that there is no permanent damage. I invite activists to find a ground for confrontation that does not put monuments at risk," he added.
    In Rome in recent weeks climate activists belonging to UG have poured black liquid into the Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona and sprayed the front of the Senate with red paint, as well as stripping off half naked and halting traffic in the central Via del Tritone and abseiling down from bridge to halt traffic on the city's 'Tangenziale' inner ring road.
    Elsewhere in Italy they have splashed paint at the La Scala opera house and the Vittorio Emanuele II statue in Milan, stuck themselves to Botticelli's Spring at the Uffizi galleries in Florence and the Laocoon statue in the Vatican, blocked the Mt Blanc Tunnel, and thrown flour over an Andy Warhol car in Milan and throwing soup onto a Van Gogh.
    In the light of such acts, the government has approved a crackdown on art 'eco-vandals', with fines of up to 60,000 euros. (ANSA).