On Monday 12 June 2023, Vatican judges found two climate activists guilty of criminally damaging the base of an important statue in the Vatican Museums during a protest that took place last year.
Newsroom(13/06/2023 20:45, Gaudium Press) Guido Viero, 61, and Ester Goffi, 26, were ordered to pay a combined amount of approximately $30,390 in damages to Vatican City State. They were also required to pay $1,080 for the Vatican’s defence and an unspecified amount in trial costs, along with a third defendant.
Viero and Goffi used super glue to attach their hands to the marble base of the Laocoön and His Sons sculpture in the Vatican Museums on August 18, 2022. They were found guilty of aggravated damage to the statue’s base due to the use of a particularly strong and corrosive adhesive. As part of their sentence, they received suspended fines of $1,620 each and suspended prison sentences of nine months. The suspensions would be lifted if they committed the same crime within the next five years.
Laura Zorzini, who had recorded a video of the demonstration, received a suspended fine of $129. The three individuals are associated with Ultima Generazione (“Last Generation”), an Italian group that promotes nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to the climate emergency.
Ultima Generazione expressed dissatisfaction with the sentence on Twitter, stating that nine months in prison for using a gram of glue was an exaggerated punishment that failed to acknowledge the severity of the situation motivating their protests. The group is seeking donations to assist Viero and Goffi in covering their personal legal expenses and the damages awarded to Vatican City State.
The climate activist group has also been involved in other notable protests in Italy, such as throwing carbon black into Rome’s Trevi Fountain and Four Rivers Fountain in May. In addition, they staged a protest at Rome’s Senate building, where members threw mud while two participants applied mud to their bare chests to protest what they believed was government complicity in disastrous flooding in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy the previous month.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA