buy stromectol scabies onlineWhile the rest of the world had its eyes on the US Senate, as it probed into a crime allegedly committed 36 years ago, the citizens of Venice had all their attention on a crime perpetrated in the small hours of 29th September. Certainly less serious in its implications, it nonetheless appalled everyone who had grown up in the city. It was nothing less than an act of vandalism committed against every native Venetian’s favourite statues..
One of the two little lions of red marble in the little square named after them (Piazzetta dei Leoncini, flanking the northern side of St Mark’s Basilica) had been daubed with red paint, around its eyes and neck. Photos of the poor abused creature appeared in all the major newspapers, both local and national, and the crime was denounced on all the news channels.
Had the criminals attacked the more magnificent monuments of the city – the statue of Colleoni, the monument to Vittorio Emanuele, St Mark’s Basilica itself – undoubtedly there would have been indignation, but nothing compared to the outrage stirred by this nasty act. For the fact is that every Venetian has a childhood memory of sitting and playing on those lions, probably with fond photographic records of the event; the stubby little marble creatures are perhaps the only truly hands-on (or, more pertinently, bottoms-on) public monuments in the city, and are dearly loved for this very reason. Every guidebook refers to the glossy gleam of the lions’ backs, brought about by nearly three centuries of constant contact with childish posteriors.
Photographs of the melancholy expression of the animal flooded the social media, with Venetians calling for exemplary punishments, including the return of “la gogna” or pillory – and, for many, it would seem, this didn’t just mean the metaphorical gogna mediatica of public humiliation on Twitter and Facebook. No, the perpetrators must be made to clean the lions, possibly with their own spittle, while onlookers would pelt them with cabbages and rotten eggs.purchase stromectol
The fact that the event had coincided with two days of animated protest against the big cruise-ships led some people to voice suspicions about the involvement of the protestors themselves. This, of course, stirred the very just indignation of one of the leaders of the protest, Tommaso Cacciari, who pointed out, reasonably enough, that those objecting to the damaging effect of the entry of monstrous-sized ships into the lagoon were very unlikely to be involved in acts of vandalism against the city’s monuments.
Of course, in all good crime stories the least likely suspect usually turns out to be the criminal. And it proved true in this case, too. No, they weren’t protestors against the cruise-ships – but they were students of art and architecture. Three of them from the Academy of Fine Arts and one from the Architecture University (IUAV). Two were from Assisi, one from Trento, and one from Brescia. A huge sigh of relief came could be heard around the whole city, as it was confirmed that no Venetian was involved.
It was the revelation that video-cameras had caught images of the criminals that proved too much for one of the gang, a girl from Brescia, who, advised by her uncle, confessed her involvement to the Carabinieri. This led to the incrimination of all four vandals, whose only feeble excuse (as would seem to be the case across the Atlantic, too) was drunkenness.
The lions are currently fenced off but it is to be hoped that this will be a temporary measure. For, after all, what would be the point of preserving these statues if no children were ever to sit on them again?
The message is clear. You can fill the lagoon with floating behemoths, you can turn every other apartment in the city into an AirBnB and every grocery-shop into a mask-boutique, but you don’t mess with Venetians’ childhood memories.
Yes, I know you are a former rider of the leoncini. I don’t have that memory myself but my children do. And of course that makes it personal.
Let’s see how the authorities react. I suspect the students are already deeply penitent – now they’ve been found out, of course.
Nicely stated. We’re incomers and not native so never sat on them: but at least once a week we go and say hello and give their noses a rub. Such an incomprehensible act
Thanks for the comment. Yes, sitting on them after the age of six or so is not encouraged. But I’m sure the lions appreciate their weekly nose-rub…
Fine Art students? Have they learnt nothing?! What kind of a person – even when drunk – taps into an instinct of destruction and disrespect? Just how much anger and self-loathing do these individuals have that they need to make their mark by defacing and damaging something? Deeply sad and shocking. I hope the leoncino is successfully cleaned and that these vandals are involved in the process of restauration in some way or other. Let them see what it feels like to make amends and do something constructive – it might make them into better humans.
You’re right; it is deeply depressing. And many people are suggesting that they should be involved in the restoration process. They might learn something…