A judge on Wednesday indicted threemembers of Italy's Ultima Generazione (Last Generation, UG)climate group for spraying wash-offable paint over MaurizioCattelan's L.O.V.E. sculpture in Milan a year ago.
Prosecutors had requested that the case against the three, agedbetween 23 and 39, be shelved, saying the action was notparticularly serious.
Cattelan wrote to the defendants' lawyer, stressing that theaction had not ruined the artwork, which is commonly known as IlDito ('the finger') and features a hand with all the fingerssevered except the middle one.
The 63-year-old artist also said he did not feel "offended orharmed" by stunt.
The city of Milan has stood as a civil plaintiff in the case.
The stunt is part of a long series of controversial acts ofcivil disobedience the UG group has staged to draw attention tothe climate emergency, including several instances of blockingtraffic and pouring easy-to-wash-off paint over the protectiveshields of artworks and famous monuments.
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