The copy of Michelangelo’s David in piazza della Signoria was damaged on March 11, with repairs to cost 15 thousand euro. The statue located in front of Palazzo Vecchio had been covered with a black cloth on March 6, the anniversary of Michelangelo’s birthday, in a symbolic gesture to convey Florence’s pain at the situation in Kyiv, a twinned city.
The black cloth was lit on fire by Vaclav Pisvejc, with technicians inspecting the damage on March 12, discovering extensive blackening on the statue that must be cleaned using specific solvents, with works expected to last a week.
The copy was made in 1910 by Luigi Arrighetti, and had already been set to be fully restored with funding from the Ferragamo maison through the art bonus, planned to begin in a few weeks time. Valcav Pisvejc has already conducted other acts of vandalism in Florence: he painted Francesco Vezzoli’s lion in piazza della Signoria in blue and yellow on March 8, and wrote Putin on the central strip of a ‘No entry’ road sign in via della Vigna Nuova. He has also been in the media for having smashed a picture over the artist Marina Abramović at Palazzo Strozzi in 2018.
Vaclav committed the crime at 8pm on March 11, and was arrested for arson upon immediate intervention by the guards on duty in the square, with fire extinguishers putting out the flames.
