Thousands flock to Banksy street art exhibition in Rome

(AGI) Rome, May 31 - Banksy-mania has descended in Italy a few days after the opening of an exhibition by the British street artist in Rome. In less than a week 6,211 people have visited Palazzo Cipolla, 3,500 over a sunny weekend, to admire "War, Capitalism and Freedom", which opened on May 24. Long queues on Via del Corso led organisers to extend opening hours from 10 am to 9 pm and to remain open seven days a week. Emmanuele Emanuele, President of the "Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Italia e Mediterraneo", said: "I am particularly pleased that this exhibition, strongly desired by me, once again shows the validity of my basic conviction: art and culture, if promoted with sensitivity combined with management skills, are a powerful driving force for tourism, and consequently for the economy of our country. In just one week, the exhibition of Banksy's works has had more than 6,000 visitors: many of them are foreign, with the inevitable ancillary activities that a figure of this kind generates in the various production sectors. Once again a private non-profit institution, therefore has given a concrete response to the needs of the community - as happened in Pompeii with the monumental exhibition of Igor Mitoraj - promoting our country's greatest asset, which is culture. I hope that this can serve as a virtuous model for the next administration that will be governing Rome in a few days." This is the first time so many of Banksy's works, from international private collections have been on display in a museum. The exhibition runs until Sept. 4 and includes paintings, prints, sculptures and rare items. (AGI) . .