Sculptor Jago's work, representing a very young emigrant who is exhausted and lying on the ground, has been on display since August 6 on the bridge. A few days after the installation, the statue's hand was broken. The sculpture will be on display at Ponte Sant'Angelo until November 5 – Photo Liverani
There is no peace even among angels. The large statues of the Bernini school on the Castel Sant'Angelo bridge failed to protect the exhausted young refugee from vandalism. Like many true emigrants, the statue in the Mediterranean sailed the Ocean King to Rome.
The statue is the work of young sculptor Jacopo Cardillo, born in 1987 in Frosinone and known internationally under the pseudonym Jago. A solo exhibition of his has just ended in Rome.
A few days after being placed on the bridge, the young migrant statue was stripped of its right arm. The area is pedestrian and accidental damage cannot be ruled out. It takes a very hard blow to lose the hand, perhaps with a blunt instrument or jump on it. Now the left foot is also broken and taken away.
Statue of young migrants in Castel Sat'Angelo – Photo Liverani
An unfortunate fate, that of the black marble statue, is probably in the name Jago gave the work : "I am ready for disaster" (In flagella paratus sum). The name of the sculpture is taken from Psalm 37 and is also the name of one of the ten baroque angels of the school of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who personally executed two angels, the one with the shell and the one with the crown. thorns, between 1667 and 1669. However, Pope Clement IX Rospigliosi, who ordered the two statues, found them too beautiful for outdoor display. So two statues remain in the Casa di Bernini, a few steps from the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. Until 1729, when the grandson of cardinal Jacopo Rospigliosi presented the statue to S.Andrea delle Fratte where the statue is still on display.
As for Jago's statue, when the street art-style exhibition ends, it is expected to be auctioned for 1,250,000 euros. All proceeds will be donated to the maritime relief NGO SOS Mediterranee.
Unidentified vandals must have destroyed the statue late at night because of the rush of tourists crossing the bridge from morning until late at night, as well as street vendors and musicians. Anger is amazing, being broken twice in the space of a few weeks. It remains to be seen whether this is merely an act of pure vandalism or whether there are xenophobic motives behind the incident.
One thing is for sure. Although in the central area, one of the tourist areas of Caput Mundi, the capital's arts center where thugs can roam is completely undisturbed, with no form of control or watch. Not once, but twice.