A new law will impose fines of up to 60,000 euros for those who degrade Italian cultural heritage through stupidity or activism.
In Italy, climate activists and all those who damage historic monuments will now have to pay up to 60,000 euros in fines if they damage Italian cultural heritage.
Italians will no longer have to pay for acts of “eco-vandalism”, Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said after the adoption of a new law providing for fines of up to 60,000 euros.
“A principle of respect for national culture has been decreed: anyone who degrades, damages or deteriorates in any way a monument must compensate the State for the expenses incurred to restore the original state of the monument”specified the minister. “Given that, as many cases show, large sums have to be spent on restoration, it is good that it is no longer the Italians who pay but those who are responsible for the damage.”
Over the past two years, an association, Ultima Generazione (UG), has organized a series of controversial protests that made headlines, including when activists poured red liquid on themselves in front of Florence Cathedral and to the emblematic statuary group of Laocoon in the Vatican Museums.
Three members of the UG are currently on trial in Rome for spraying easy-to-wash paint on the facade of the Senate last January.
The new law will also affect tourists who enjoy leaving graffiti on historic monuments.
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