Vatican Court Orders Climate Activists To Pay For Damaging To Ancient Statue

On Monday, the Vatican Court ruled that two activists who had glued themselves to the Laocoön and His Sons statue in the Vatican Museum will have to front €30,000 (US$32,000) for damages the sculpture has sustained.
 
In August last year, Guido Viero and Esther Goffi from the climate change activist group Ultima Generazione headed into the Vatican Museum. They glued one of their hands to the Laocoön and His Sons statue while holding a banner that said “Last Generation: No gas and no carbon” in Italian.
 
The famous sculpture was carved in Rhodes, Greece, around 40 to 30 BC. It’s a detailed marble statue of the priest of Apollo and his twin sons, Antiphas and Thymbraeus, trying to expose the truth about the Trojan Horse by piercing it with a spear. Two serpents, Porces and Chariboea, are seen slithering up the group, trying to crush them.

The sculpture has held great significance since it was found in Rome in 1506, and has resided in the Vatican Museum ever since. A statement from Ultima Generazione said that it chose Lacocoön and His Sons because of how they had tried to warn the citizens of Troy of their ultimate demise. However, they were not listened to and shunned away due to the politics of the Trojan War.
 
While their hands were glued to the sculpture’s base and not the subjects themselves, it has still sustained repairs amounting to €3,148 (US$3,400). During a previous hearing, Guy Devereux, who works in the Vatican Museums’ marble restoration laboratory, said that the damages were less than anticipated but were still permanent. 
 
According to Reuters, the Tribunal of the Vatican City State has ruled that Viero and Goffi will jointly have to pay €28,148 to the Vatican authorities and €1,000 in legal costs. On top of that, they were given jail sentences of nine months each and an additional €1,500 fine.
 
Ultima Generazione spoke out about the decision and called it “disproportionate and unjust,” as all this resulted from some glue on a marble base. It also said that the actions of its members echoed the sentiments of Pope Francis, who has called for an end to fossil fuel use.

Earlier this year, a separate stunt saw the group turn the waters of the Trevi Fountain black with charcoal to bring attention to the destruction in the Emilia-Romagna region.
 
 

[via Reuters and Artnews, images via Ultima Generazione]