Illegally Painted Mural Donated as Art for Charity in Reggio Emilia

The Italian collective Collettivo FX, active for over a decade in Reggio Emilia, has legally donated the image rights of its mural 'Bambino nel carrello' to the Mercato contadino di Casa Bettola via notarial deed 122.231 registered on September 29, 2020. The mural was painted illegally in February 2016 on a private rural building slated for demolition to make way for a new shopping center. By exploiting copyright law, the unauthorized artwork has acquired legal and economic value: the market will reproduce it on bags and T-shirts to promote sustainable consumption, while the mural has also caused delays and suspensions of the construction site. The collective, known for amplifying marginalized voices, sees this as a political act that transforms a community through collective awareness. The paradox highlights tensions between illegal artistic creation and legal exploitation, as well as between the environmental cost of building a shopping center on 30,000 square meters of green space in one of Italy's most polluted areas and the cultural value of the mural.