E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Cesare Abbate / EPA
Antonio Manfredi, director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum near Naples, Italy, watches as he burns a painting. He said he plans to burn three paintings every week to protest government cuts in funding for museums and galleries.
Frustrated by limited government funding, the director of an art museum outside Naples, Italy, set fire to two paintings this week in protest, warning more would feel the heat of budget woes, the Guardian of London reported.
"There's no money for upkeep. We were flooded recently. And there are tons of garbage mounting up outside," Antonio Manfredi, director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum, told the Guardian.
The first painting sacrificed was by French artist Severine Bourguignon, who supported the burning. The painting was worth about $13,000. Bourguignon watched her painting burn via Skype, the BBC reported.
The second painting was by Neapolitan artist Rosaria Matarese, The Associated Press reported. She also gave her consent to burn her work, worth about $9,000.
Manfredi said he intends to burn three more as part of what he called “art war.”
Italy has faced a series of austerity measures in the last year. Art institutions say they have been hit hard as state subsidies have decreased, the BBC reported.
But Manfredi has asked not just for public funding but also official support.
The lack of funds has resulted in weakened security, which thieves have used to their advantage, the Guardian reported. Manfredi said the mafia, which thrives in Naples, has stolen security cameras and art.
"Our 1,000 artworks are headed for destruction anyway because of the government's indifference," Manfredi said.”This is war. This is revolution.”
He noted that his museum has 1,000 pieces of art by European, African and Chinese artists, so this could be a long protest.
Officials of the center-left Democratic Party in Italy appealed for money for the museum Wednesday.
More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- US warns of possible attacks on Westerners in Nigeria
- Afghan schoolgirls poisoned in anti-education attack
- Spanish king 'very sorry' for elephant-hunting vacation
- Scandal sends China's netizens into a feeding frenzy
- Norway mass killer Anders Breivik: I 'would do it all again'
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Leave a Comment:
Paintings are some of the wonderful national treasures of the world. It's too bad the paintings will be destroyed. As a Painter myself, I have a great deal of respect for the Artists, who share their art sometimes freely with the world. Many times some of the greatest attractions, when we visit other countries is their paintings, sculpture, and other fine art. This destruction of art will be a real tragedy to those that love art.
Thank God, there is many more beautiful things, waiting for those that love Him.
Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face-- if Antonio Manfredi keeps burning paintings, he's going to lose the museum.
If he was smart, he would try to find private funding. I'm sure he could find some people with money who would find his museum worthy of their patronage. But to burn the art--that's not very smart.
Yeah, who would give money to a museum which deliberately destroys part of its collection????
Duh! Why not just sell some of the paintings instead of burning them..
They can't even manage to pick up the garbage in Naples. How do you expect them to fund a museum?
Do you really think that fact actually makes it through to artists? Artists like the painters who have consented to have their "art" burned have lived their whole lives being told how special and precious they are. They have grown up believing it is the job of "society" to subsidize their hobby so that they can make a living out of it. Do you expect anything other than the petulance being displayed by the clown burning those paintings? I sure don't.