A Famous Tourist Attraction... Ink Spilled, Marble Stained
Last Year, Vegetable Soup Thrown on a Van Gogh Work Too
One of Rome, Italy's most iconic tourist spots, the Spanish Steps fountain, was stained black. This was because the Italian environmental group 'Ultima Generazione' (Last Generation), known for their extreme protests, poured ink into the fountain water.
On the 1st (local time), the environmental group 'Ultima Generazione' (Last Generation) staged a radical protest by pouring ink into the water of the Barcaccia Fountain at the Spanish Steps, a tourist attraction in Rome, Italy. [Photo by AP Yonhap News]
On the 1st (local time), according to major foreign media including the US CNN, the group poured black liquid into the Barcaccia Fountain, a boat-shaped fountain located below the Spanish Steps in the Spanish Square. A video posted on the group's Twitter shows three men and one woman from the group entering the fountain and releasing black liquid from their pockets into the water, quickly turning the fountain water black. The group stated that the liquid was plant-based ink made from charcoal. They displayed a banner on the blackened fountain that read, "Stop using fossil fuels."
Police nearby immediately tried to stop the protesters, but the ink quickly spread throughout the fountain water. CNN reported that the protesters were arrested on charges including vandalism of public property shortly after the act. The ink was not completely removed by the afternoon of the same day, and it is known that the marble fountain showed clear staining.
The Barcaccia Fountain, completed in 1629 by Pietro Bernini, is a famous tourist attraction located below the Spanish Steps, known as the place where Audrey Hepburn, playing Princess Ann in the movie "Roman Holiday," ate gelato. The square got its name, Spanish Square, because the Spanish ambassador to the Papal States established his headquarters there in the 17th century.
Roberto Gualtieri, the mayor of Rome, posted a photo on his Twitter showing the blackened fountain and wrote, "Rome leads in responding to climate change and protecting artistic and cultural heritage." He added, "Pouring black liquid into the Barcaccia Fountain neither helps the environment nor is it acceptable behavior," and said, "We are working to ensure the fountain is not permanently damaged."
Ultima Generazione has carried out several radical protests last year as well. In July last year, they protested at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence by gluing their hands to the protective glass of Sandro Botticelli's masterpiece "Primavera" (Spring). In November of the same year, they poured vegetable soup on Vincent van Gogh's "The Sower," exhibited at the Bonaparte Palace Museum in Rome. They justify these actions by arguing that raising awareness about the severity of the climate crisis is difficult through ordinary means and thus continue such protests.
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