Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain was
coloured red for the second time in 10 years when the same man,
anarchic artist Graziano Cecchini, poured dye into the famed
waters where tourists toss coins to make sure they will return
to the Eternal City.
The man was stopped by traffic wardens who took him to a
police office.
Access to the fountain was cordoned off after the incident.
Hundreds of curious tourists snapped photos and selfies while
the police officers completed their work of putting up a
perimeter around the fountain.
On October 19 2007 the Trevi waters of turned blood red after
Cecchini threw paint into the basin in a bizarre act of
vandalism apparently inspired by the Futurists of the early 20th
century.
Cecchini said his new "work" was called Pacta Servanda Sunt,
Latin for "deals must be kept".
Cecchini, 64, who made worldwide headlines with his first
stunt, was charged with vandalism in 2008 but got off with a
light sentence.
Cecchini, 54, a former right-wing extremist, carried out
his stunt, like today, during the Rome Film Festival, delighting
tourists and enraging officials.
"There's the red carpet, Valentino red and now red Trevi
too," he said, adding that he was trying to raise awareness of
the plight of Italy's casual workers.
The dye assault was claimed by 'FTM Futurist Action
2007', a previously unknown group which said it aimed to turn
this "grey bourgeois society into a triumph of colour".
Cecchini followed up the Trevi attack by sending about half a
million coloured balls thundering down Rome's Spanish Steps on
January 16, 2008.
As tourists rushed about picking up souvenir balls,
police quickly cordoned off the area and called in the
municipal refuse collectors. They arrived a little later with
large nets to scoop up the coloured spheres.
Cecchini said the prank was a protest against the
"balle" (balls, or lies) allegedly fed to a gullible public
by politicians of all stripes.
The self-styled 'activist artist' again got off lightly
for "interrupting public services".
He received a small fine for creating a mess in a public
place and stopping buses and taxis running.
Cecchini won several plaudits after his Trevi feat
and appeared on a number of TV shows.
One of his admirers was Milan's then culture chief,
prominent art critic Vittorio Sgarbi.
Sgarbi also liked the Spanish Steps balls, saying
"anarchy is a typical feature of contemporary art".
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