As the first act of a new administration it was a dramatic one: at dawn on Tuesday the new Mayor of Porto Cesareo [Lecce, Puglia] signed an order for the removal of a statue of the model and actress Manuela Arcuri from the town’s seafront, reports Corriere della Sera.
The statue, commissioned by tourist operators in the area and inaugurated in 2002, depicts Arcuri as a siren and the words, “From the sea at Porto Cesareo to Manuela Arcuri, symbol of beauty and prosperity” are inscribed on its base. Locally, however, it was referred to as “the fisherman’s wife” and this did not please the real fisherman’s wives of the town, which has only around 5,000 inhabitants.
“It doesn’t represent us”, the women protested from the beginning and in 2009 the journalist Gianni Ippoliti joined them, saying he was ready to personally destroy the statue.
Now the statue is enjoying the view in a less beautiful place; a storeroom near the local football ground. The women of Porto Cesareo want it replaced by a statue of the Madonna of the Sea.
Do you agree with the women of Porto Cesareo?
