NAPLES - - The art piece "The Venus of Rags" ("La Venere degli Stracci") by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto was destroyed in a fire on Wednesday morning in this southern city and police believe arson to be the cause. 

 The flames, which started early on Wednesday morning, melted the statue and reduced the old clothes that adorned it to ashes. In the Piazza Municipio in Naples, fire brigades and municipal police were on hand to put out the flames, the origin of which is being investigated.

 The fire broke out between 5.13 and 5.30 am, according to a report by Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. This was witnessed by videos posted by passers-by and taxi drivers who were crossing the square at that time.

 “The Venus of Rags” was first unveiled by Pistoletto in 1967 and was the largest and most monumental of the sculptor's works. At about ten metres high, it was inspired by “Venus with the apple” by the 19th century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.

 Only a few shreds of fibreglass cloth remain of the “Venus” statue. For the rest, only the metal structure survived. There are various hypotheses as to the cause of the fire, although spontaneous combustion seems to be ruled out, according to Fatto, since the structure did not contain any electrical apparatus.

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