The Venus with Rags, one of contemporary Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s best-known sculptures, was destroyed on Wednesday in Naples by a fire of suspicious origin, authorities said. The work, which depicts a statue of the Roman goddess of beauty, love and fertility facing a large pile of stained clothes thrown on the ground, stood in the open air near the town hall, where it had was installed only two weeks ago.
The mayor of the southern metropolis, Gaetano Manfredi, said the fire on Wednesday at dawn was “an act of great violence that leaves us speechless”, and promised that the installation would be rebuilt. Michelangelo Pistoletto was “filled with bitterness and hurt” by this act of “vandalism”, added Gaetano Manfredi after speaking with the artist, who wanted this fire to be “interpreted by us as a (chance for a) new beginning”.
There are several versions of the Venus of the Rags, which juxtaposes an emblematic figure of classical culture and beauty with the detritus of contemporary society, in various museums around the world. Michelangelo Pistoletto, 90, is considered one of the major representatives of the Italian artistic movement Arte Povera. His works have been exhibited in New York, London and Paris.
