The Italian Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, has been firm this Sunday and has announced new measures to protect works of art in the face of constant attacks in recent weeks. Measures such as, for example, the installation of protective glass, which will lead to an increase in the price of museums.
"The continuous attacks and aggressions that increasingly occur to the detriment of our artistic and cultural heritage force us to rethink and strengthen the levels of protection," Sangiuliano said today in a press release, in which he took the opportunity to condemn " the senseless and gratuitous violence that is directed against the paintings, installations, works and structures of our museums and galleries".
Raising the price of admission to museums has been justified "considering the enormous heritage to be protected, the intervention will consequently represent a considerable cost for the coffers of the ministry and the entire nation and, unfortunately, can only foresee an increase in the cost of the entrance".
Sangiuliano has concluded that, "once again, the indignation of a few violent ones risks falling on Italians and, in particular, on those who want to go see a good exhibition."
In recent months there have been several attacks by climate change activists on prominent works of art to draw attention to global warming.
The last canvas that has suffered an attack has been Death and Life, by the Austrian Gustav Klimt, which is exhibited in the Leopold Museum in Vienna, although these attacks have also affected works such as Las Majas, by Goya; Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring; Van Gogh's Sunflowers; The haystacks, by Monet or La Gioconda, by Leonardo Da Vinci. None of them suffered damage.
In Italy the phenomenon is repeated and a group of activists stuck their hands to the glass that protects La Primavera by Sandro Botticelli in the room of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
The latest attack occurred this Friday, when activists in the fight against climate change also threw eight kilos of flour on a car designed by Andy Warhol at an exhibition in Milan.
