Vandals set fire to 90-year-old Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Naples installation

Vandals set fire to and destroyed a seminal artwork by one of Italy’s most famous living artists on Wednesday 12 July.

By the time flames were doused, all that was left of the installation by Michelangelo Pistoletto was a charred frame.

Mr Pistoletto’s artwork, titled “Venus of the Rags” had been on display outside Naples’ City Hall since 28 June.

It featured a large plaster neoclassical nude Venus, inspired by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 19th century “Venus with Apple,” picking through a mountain of rags.

Pistoletto told the Corriere della Sera daily newspaper that there could be many reasons for the attack.