Seminal Sculpture by Michelangelo Pistoletto Destroyed in Fire in Naples

A famed sculpture by Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of Italy’s most celebrated living artists, was destroyed in a fire early Wednesday outside Naples City Hall. The blaze swiftly melted the plaster figure, sparing only its metal skeleton.

Pistoletto’s sculpture, titled Venus in Rags, featured a neoclassical nude Venus picking through a pile of colorful rags—contrasting divine beauty with earthly destitute, according to the artist. The first version of Venus was made in 1967; this large-scale iteration was installed in the central Piazza Municipio on June 28.

The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. However, Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi said in a statement that authorities are investigating the possibility of arson. “I am incredulous, saddened. They set Pistoletto ‘s Venus of Rags on fire,” Vincenzo Trione, cultural adviser to Manfredi, said in a press conference on Wednesday.

A dismayed Pistoletto told the Corriere della Sera daily newspaper that there could be countless motivations for the destruction.

“It is a work that calls for regeneration, on the necessity to find a balance and harmony between two minds that are represented on the one hand by beauty, and on the other by consummate consumerism, a disaster,’’ the 90-year-old artist said.

He continued: “The world is going up in flames anyway. The same spirits that are waging war are the ones that set the Venus on fire.“

The 90-year-old Pistoletto is one of the foremost figures of Italian Arte Povera, a movement active from the late 1960s to 1970s. Its members sought to create a new sculptural language from mundane and ephemeral materials, inspiring Italian art critic and curator Germano Celant to coin the term arte povera, meaning “poor art”. Pistoletto’s success helped launch the ideology into the global art consciousness. He participated in Documenta in Kassel several times and was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2003 Venice Biennale in recognition of his life’s work.