One of Florence’s best-known contemporary art installations has been vandalised. The “Common Man” statue by French artist Clet Abraham was torn down from Ponte alle Grazie overnight and thrown into the River Arno.
The body of the statue was recovered in the early hours of the morning on the riverbank near the Circolo Canottieri rowing club. However, the head is still missing.
The news was confirmed by the artist himself in a video posted on his social media channels, where he also shared images of the damage. He said the installation had been uprooted and thrown into the river, adding that while the body had been retrieved, the head had not yet been found.
Clet has launched a public appeal to recover the missing part. He said he would offer one of his own artworks as a gift to anyone who manages to find the head in the Arno and return it before it is carried downstream towards Pisa.
The “Common Man” (L’Uomo Comune) had been installed on a stone bollard at the centre of Ponte alle Grazie, one of the bridges connecting the historic centre to the Oltrarno district. Over the years it became a popular subject for photographs, especially on social media.
The installation has previously been at the centre of a legal dispute. Clet was reported for a landscape violation linked to the placement of the work on the bridge, initially fined, and later acquitted on appeal.
Clet Abraham, who has his studio in the San Niccolò area, is widely known in Florence for his reinterpretations of road signs across the city. His works, which alter official traffic signs with stylised figures, have become part of the city’s contemporary visual landscape, though they have also sparked debate over legality and public space. It is not known who is responsible for the vandalism.
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