UPDATE: Man Arrested in Connection to Destroying Michelangelo Pistoletto's 'Venus of the Rags'

Update:

Italian officials have arrested a 32-year-old homeless man in Naples in connection to the arson attack that destroyed Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags installation.

According to a New York Times report, security footage traced the man’s whereabouts to a soup kitchen where he was later detained. The installation had only been up for two weeks before it was burned down, but Naples city mayor Gaetano Manfredi was quick to reassure that the work would be reinstalled through a crowdfunding program, noting that the artwork represented “a great symbol of regeneration,” in relation to the city’s problematic reputation.

Still, there were some residents who were not as keen as Pistoletto and the mayor at the site of a giant rag monolith in the center of the city, with one local tweeting: “The venus of rags was so ugly that she set fire to herself.” Pistoletto, 90, was naturally taken aback by the attack, but understood that there is always “an element of risk” when placing an artwork in a social setting. Nonetheless, the acclaimed Italian artist is keen on recreating the artwork again to show “that good initiatives are not lost.”

Original Story: Michelangelo Pistoletto‘s giant Venus of the Rags installation in Naples was destroyed by an alleged arson attack. The artwork was first created in 1967 during the height of the Arte Povera movement, in which Pistoletto juxtaposed a statue of the Roman goddess Venus, which alludes to beauty and fertility, against a large pile of rags as a commentary on the adverse effects of consumerism.

The destroyed artwork was the largest of several different iterations of Venus of the Rags that are housed in museums around the world. Naples mayor Gaetano Manfredi expressed “deep dismay” at learning the artwork, which has been housed in the city’s Piazza del Municipio, was set ablaze. “Now, however, is the time for a response from the city: I have already heard from Pistoletto, the work will be redone. Violence and vandalism will not stop art, regeneration and culture in Naples,” Manfredi added.

Local authorities are currently investigating the root cause of the incident, but Manfredi told reporters that crowdfunding efforts are currently underway to raise money to have the installation rebuilt.