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Vatican court sentences eco-activists to prison for damaging art

(RNS) — The three activists raised awareness of climate change by damaging artwork in the Vatican Museums last summer.
Vatican court sentences eco-activists to prison for damaging art
FILE - Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) activists Ester Goffi, left, and Guido Viero demonstrate at The Vatican, Wednesday, May 24, 2023, where they are on trial for having staged a protest in August 2022 inside the Vatican Museums. A Vatican court on Monday, June 12, 2023, convicted the two environmental activists of aggravated damage and ordered them to pay more than 28,000 euros (US$30,000) in damages after they glued their hands to the base of an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest to draw attention to climate change. The banner in Italian reads "We don't pay for fossil fuels" (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Claire Giangravè

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Two environmental activists have been found guilty of vandalism for gluing themselves to a statue in the Vatican Museums. In the conclusion of the much-talked-about trial on Monday (June 12), Vatican judges sentenced the activists to nine months in prison and charged them a 1,500 euro fine with a suspended sentence of five years.

Guido Viero, 61, and Ester Goffi, 26, glued themselves to the statue of “Laocoön and His Sons,” in the famed Vatican Museums last summer. A third activist, Laura Zorzini, filmed the other two in action with her phone. Zorzini was sentenced to pay a 120 euro fine.

Vatican City only has three prison cells, and its courts rarely sentence individuals to jail. 


The activists belong to the environmentalist group Ultima Generazione, “Last Generation,” which has become famous in Italy in recent years for drawing attention to the climate crisis through acts of vandalism targeting the country’s famed historical sites.

 

“Nine months of jail for one gram of glue,” Ultima Generazione commented on Twitter. “An exaggerated sentence, which doesn’t want to recognize the drama of the situation that pushed to protest.” 

The activists will also have to pay a 120 euro fine for trespassing. Viero and Goffi will have to compensate the Vatican City State for the damage done to the statue for a total of 28,148 euros.  

The judges decided the offense will not be added to the Vatican’s criminal records unless the eco-activists transgress again.

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Speaking to RNS on the day of the second trial hearing (May 24), Last Generation activists said they hoped Pope Francis would intercede for Goffi and Viero.

“He is more radical than we are,” said Tommaso Juhasz, a member of the Last Generation. “If one reads ‘Laudato Si’ and what it says and what it demands, it’s much more radical than we are,” he added, referencing Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical promoting the care for the environment and the need for nations to come together to fight climate change.


Last Generation declined to comment by the time this article was published. 

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