A statue in the Loggia dei Lanzi damaged

FLORENCE, ITALY – Today, at 8 am, a body monitoring (“Friends of the Earth”) in the Loggia dei Lanzi found the phalanx of a finger of the left hand of the sculpture by Pio Fedi depicting “The Rape of Polyxena” had been removed. All fingers of this hand are product additions made necessary by repeated acts of vandalism (the last in March 2009).

The restorer Alberto Casciani, who these days performs the task of dusting the statues in the Loggia, announced that the finger was in right place (“not broken”) on the afternoon of October 9, when the scaffolding was near the sculpture. The surveillance cameras, working and active, did not provide useful information to reconstruct what happened.

The direction of the Uffizi Gallery (which control Loggia dei Lanzi) ordered that the fragment is reinstated by the same restorer Casciani, who has been willing to finish the job in no more than two days at no cost. The Commander of the Carabinieri Station of the Uffizi was informed of this incident.