Blu Cancels Bologna Murals in Protest Against Street Art Exhibition

Street artist Blu has begun painting over his large-scale murals in Bologna, Italy, in protest against an upcoming exhibition at Palazzo Pepoli that plans to remove street art from public walls for display indoors. The show, curated by Christian Omodeo and Luca Ciancabilla and supported by Fabio Roversi Monaco—former rector of the University of Bologna, president of Genus Bononiae and Fondazione Carisbo, and a noted Freemason—opens March 18 and features international names including Banksy and Blu himself. Organizers have detached dozens of street artworks from walls to preserve them from decay, a practice known as 'strappo' (tearing). Blu's action, carried out overnight, destroys his own works rather than allow them to be forcibly removed and commodified. The artist's gesture is supported by the collective Wu Ming, who stated that after years of stigmatizing graffiti and evicting youth spaces, the city's powers now seek to pose as saviors of street art. The event has sparked debate over authorship, public ownership, and the ethics of removing art from its original context. Blu's murals in Bologna and previously in Kreuzberg, Berlin—destroyed in protest against gentrification—are now lost to the public entirely.