Vandal behind attack on Holocaust survivor murals identified by Italian police
35-year-old man accused of antisemitic hate crime after defacing artworks honouring survivors
The man responsible for the antisemitic defacement of Holocaust memorial murals in Milan has been identified and reported following an investigation by state Police.
According to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, the perpetrator is a 35-year-old man of South American origin residing in the city. He has been officially reported for aggravated damage motivated by racial hatred and discrimination after targeting two large-scale public artworks by renowned pop artist aleXsandro Palombo.
The murals, created for International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January 2025, honoured three of Italy’s most prominent living Holocaust survivors – Liliana Segre, Edith Bruck and Sami Modiano – and featured provocative imagery in Palombo’s signature “Simpsons-style” pop aesthetic. One mural also depicted Pope Francis holding a sign that read “Antisemitism is Everywhere”.
Both works were vandalised with large swastikas, racial slurs, and red paint smeared across Star of David symbols. Segre’s face was erased, Pope Francis defaced, and the Israeli flag draped over Bruck in one image was completely destroyed. One of the slogans sprayed across the wall read “Israeli Nazis”.
Photo Credit: aleXsandro Palombo
“These acts are not mere defacements: they are an attack on memory, history and democratic values,” Palombo said in response to the findings. “To strike at the faces and symbols of Holocaust survivors is to attempt to erase testimony, deny horror, and fuel hatred.”
The investigation was driven by surveillance footage and on-the-ground police work, culminating in the man’s identification earlier this week.
The news comes just days after another of Palombo’s Holocaust-themed murals, Track 21 – The Simpsons Deported to Auschwitz, was defaced at Milan’s Shoah Memorial with blood-red paint and the graffiti “Free Pal”. That work, a globally recognised image portraying the Simpson family as Jewish deportees, has now been attacked six times.
Photo Credit: aleXsandro Palombo
Auschwitz survivor Edith Bruck, whose mural was among those vandalised, previously said: “The mural lives, it must live, precisely because it was vandalised… After being erased, it has truly come to life.”
Palombo, who has faced repeated threats and intimidation, said he would not be silenced. “These attacks do not intimidate me; they reinforce my determination.”
Several of the artist’s Holocaust pieces have been added to the permanent collection of Rome’s Holocaust Museum, including those defaced in Milan. Palombo has called on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to introduce emergency legislation to tackle antisemitic extremism and protect cultural memory.
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