A series of Graffiti portraits of fugitive Cosa Nostra kingpin Matteo Messina Denaro appeared Thursday morning on a back wall of the Palermo cathedral, police reported.
The four portraits, each in a different color, were in the pop art style of the late American artist Andy Warhol, especially his portraits of Marilyn Monroe.
The portraits were based on the last known photo of the fugitive boss, who is believed to have risen to the top of Cosa Nostra in Sicily.
At the bottom of each portraits are a series of dollar signs ($), Denaro being Italian for money, along with the saying 'Messina Denaro $ The Last'.
Next to the mural is a circle around the initials F.A, which police believe may belong to the unknown graffiti artist.
Messina Denaro, 44, began his rise to power from his native city of Trapani, in western Sicily.
Following the arrest two years ago of Cosa Nostra superboss Bernardo Provenzano, after 42 years on the run, Messina Denaro was considered a prime candidate to become the new 'boss of bosses' along with the older Palermo boss Salvatore Lo Piccolo.
A 'pax mafiosa' initially settled in after Provenzano's arrest because neither Lo Piccolo nor Messina Denaro appeared to have sufficient forces to seek control of Cosa Nostra.
However, several top-level hits over the past year led investigators to believe that a power struggle had broken out between the two rivals.
Lo Piccolo was arrested in November of last year, leaving Messina Denaro free to assume total control of Cosa Nostra.
Messina Denaro, a fugitive since 1993, enjoys a semi-mythical status among newer, more ambitious Cosa Nostra members.
The former Porsche-driving playboy sealed a reputation for brutality by murdering a rival Trapani boss and strangling his three-months pregnant girlfriend.
A recent FBI report indicated that Messina Denaro had become one of the world's top drug dealers.
