Tvboy's Mural of Di Maio and Salvini Kiss Removed by Rome Municipality

On March 23, 2018, street artist Tvboy created two murals in Rome: one in Via del Collegio Capranica near Montecitorio depicting Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini kissing, titled 'Amor Populi,' and another in Trastevere showing Giorgia Meloni embracing a refugee child. The works referenced Dmitrij Vrubel's 1989 graffiti of Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev kissing on the Berlin Wall, and Banksy's 'Kissing Copper.' Within hours, AMA, the municipal waste company, removed both murals, covering the first with cardboard boxes before painting over it. The swift removal contrasted with the city's usual inefficiency in waste collection, tree removal after February 26 snowfall, and graffiti cleanup. Tvboy, a Palermo-born, Barcelona-based street artist, had previously seen his work celebrated by the administration; in 2016, Mayor Virginia Raggi welcomed artist Maupal to the Capitol after his mural was removed. The incident highlights tensions between political messaging, public art, and municipal censorship.