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Trevi Fountain runs red for second time in 7 years

The Local Italy
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Trevi Fountain runs red for second time in 7 years
The last time the Trevi Fountain got a dye job, in 2007. Photo: Christophe Simon/AFP

Police have arrested a man for dyeing the Trevi Fountain, the second time in ten years that Rome's iconic water feature has run red.

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Exactly seven years and one week since someone last pulled the stunt, a man poured dye into the Trevi basin in central Rome on Thursday afternoon.

He was stopped by a traffic warden and taken to a police station, Ansa news agency reported

The previous incident, on October 19th 2007, was partly a protest against the cost of the Rome film festival, with the red waters symbolising the red carpet.

An Italian "vandalism artist", Graziano Cecchini, later claimed responsibility for the act, which he insisted used natural dye that wouldn't harm either the public or the 18th-century marble fountain. 

 

A post shared by Tommaso Filippi (@supertommeo) on Oct 26, 2017 at 8:06am PDT

 

A post shared by Paula Cardoso (@paulalacardoso) on Oct 26, 2017 at 9:15am PDT

In 2008, Cecchini struck another Roman landmark, rolling some 500,000 plastic balls down the Spanish Steps to symbolize each "lie told by a politician". 

This year's edition of the film festival opened in Rome today, which suggests that the stunt is a re-run. 

 

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