The artist Fabrizio Plessi, 81, attacked and robbed in the historic center by 4 boys
VENICE – Campo San Polo, Monday evening 7 March at approximately 7 pm. Fabrizio Plessi, 81, a world-famous artist living in Venice, is returning home when he realizes that he is being followed by 4 people, three boys and a girl, all in their twenties, who in a few moments will rob him of his wallet. The four behind the step-by-step artist and suddenly, in the open field, at the height of the financial police headquarters, the girl jumps on his shoulders as if to immobilize him.
Plessi doesn’t even have time to realize what is happening when he feels a hand slip into the left pocket of his jacket and grab his wallet. It lasts a moment: suddenly, the artist sees the four young people running away in the direction of the Rialto, making them lose their tracks. Back home, Plessi yesterday afternoon reported the robbery at the police station.
“We should have the right to live in a safe city – he commented after having the story of the robbery put on paper – because Venice should be a city of pleasure and dreams. It’s not fair to go out in the afternoon and be robbed, and I haven’t been attacked or beaten. ‘ On the collaborator case now the agents of the state police: the first move is all the images of the security cameras between Campo San Polo and Rialto in order to identify the four boys who stole the artist’s wallet on Monday evening. Plessi himself told the police that he had not been able to see the boys nor was he able to say whether they were Venetians or not since they never spoke to him but only one of them jumped on him and then ran away with the others.
Plessi, born in Reggio Emilia in 1940 and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1962, focuses his artistic work on the themes of water and fire represented on large screens. In addition to having curated the Italian pavilion at the Hanover Expo in 2000, he curated the Venice Pavilion at the 2011 Biennale. His latest exhibition was inaugurated last Saturday at the Magazzino del Sale 3 alle Zattere: it is called Trilogy and is open until to April 3. In recent years Plessi has installed in Piazza San Marco. On September 1, 2020, his installation “The Golden Age” was inaugurated with screens that transformed the fifteen windows of 4.50 meters each, on the facade of the Napoleonic Wing of the Correr Museum, in a play of light and charm which left the audience enchanted. Shortly after, at Christmas 2020, he had his hi-tech Christmas tree with gold screens placed between the two columns of San Marco discussed.