One day a vandal, the next an artist. That is the story of the baseball-capped culprit who dumped a bottle of dye into the famed Trevi Fountain here Friday, turning the waters blood-red for a day.
As soon as it was clear that the 18th Century baroque fountain had not been seriously damaged, intellectuals and art critics began reconsidering the gesture as something nearing genius.
“Once the indignation had died down, we rediscovered the Fountain of Trevi,” said blogger Roberto D’Agostino. “It’s a resurrection of Andy Warhol, the act of highlighting an object of mass consumption.”
A box found near the fountain held leaflets signed “Ftm Futurist Action 2007,” a reference to futurism, the 20th Century art movement that advocated a violent break with the past. The fliers said the act was, in part, a protest of the cost of the Rome Film Fest, which runs until Saturday, and that the color referred to the event’s red carpet.
It is a lackluster festival, said a media critic, Gianluca Nicoletti, “with no depth, no color.”
“The real splash was the one made at a fountain,” he said.