The Shoah Museum in Rome has acquired a piece by reserved contemporary pop artist aleXsandro Palombo after it was defaced in an apparent act of antisemitism.
The mural, which depicts Liliana Segre and Sami Modiano, the last two Italian survivors of Auschwitz, was defaced multiple times and even erased by vandals.
Segre and Modiano are shown in striped clothing under green bullet-proof vests with yellow Stars of David on them, and there are even representations of the serial numbers tattooed on them by the Nazis. The perpetrators vandalized Segre and Modiano's faces, as well as the stars on their chests, but left the numbers on their arms untouched.
"They took away my face, my identity, they erased the yellow star, but they left the number tattooed on my arm," Segre said.
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Palombo eventually reproduced the piece, and it is now part of the museum's permanent collection.
"Art is the highest expression of freedom, and repeatedly attacking a work that portrays two survivors of Auschwitz highlights how the very value of democracy and all our freedoms is in danger," Palombo said in a statement. "The gesture of courage and resistance of the Shoah Museum of Rome and the Italian Jewish community is a great and precious lesson in civilization for all of us, who responded to the antisemitic violence and hatred of these new forms of social and cultural terrorism with a powerful action of the Risorgimento."
Palombo has made several pieces honoring the Holocaust, and his other works have not been spared from vandalism.
A piece entitled "Arbeit macht frei," which shows Hungarian writer and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck wrapped in an Israeli flag was also defaced, with much of the flag being erased. The title of this mural is the same phrase the Nazis put on the gates of Auschwitz, and it translates to "work makes you free."
Bruck told Italian newspaper La Stampa that she was saddened but not surprised by the vandalism, saying that "antisemitism is a tsunami."
The mural of Bruck has also been acquired by the Shoah Museum in Rome.
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Another one of Palombo's pieces that was vandalized was entitled "Halt! Stoj!," which depicted Segre, Modiano and Burk alongside Pope Francis, who is outfitted with a cross and a sign reading "antisemitism is everywhere." The four are depicted as Simpsons characters, a common motif for Palombo. While the image of the pope was not damaged, vandals defaced the Stars of David on the three Holocaust survivors.
Palombo, a contemporary pop artist and activist, used pop culture references in his artwork, including celebrities and cartoon characters from the Simpsons and Disney. One of his most iconic works is the "Simpsons deported to Auschwitz," which shows Marge, Homer, Maggie, Bart and Lisa before and after the concentration camp, referencing the emaciated state of Holocaust survivors liberated from Nazi camps.
