CORTINA D'AMPEZZO - The London street artist Endless has seen his works snapped up by wealthy collectors and included among the masterpieces of Florence’s Uffizi Gallery. His growing fame led to a commission for a mural to celebrate the World Ski Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo earlier this year but it has not been enough to protect his work from the destructive combination of Italian bureaucracy and artistically insensitive council workmen.

  The work, titled “Powder to the People”, was inspired by a 1951 Vogue cover and embellished an electricity cabin near the centre of the chic Italian ski resort. It was financed by a local electricity company and had the backing of the town council and an Italian cultural foundation. The artist was invited to talk to local school children in connection with the commission.

  Despite his prestige and official recognition, the new work has been covered over in white paint, restoring the electricity cabin to its traditional role as an eyesore.

  “It was an incomprehensible act of cultural vandalism that took place under the astonished and impotent gaze of bystanders,” said Contemporary&Co, the Cortina gallery that represents the artist. “It’s the latest example of the inability of our administrators to protect the artistic patrimony present on our territory and of the persistent shortsightedness in recognising the full artistic legitimacy of street art,” the gallery said.

  A moment of aesthetic whiteout for the fashionable Dolomites resort, which is due to host the Winter Olympics in 2026.