Vita gazette – A replica of the Trevi Fountain, one of the most famous symbols of Italy, was made in Brazil. The fountain, made using the copy-and-paste method, divided society in two. Culture theft? Respect for Italian culture?

“Marcello, come here. Hurry up!”. It is one of the most famous scenes from Federico Fellini’s 1960 film, ‘La Dolce Vita’. The scene in which Anita Ekberg invites Marcello Mastroianni to follow her and to bathe with her in the Trevi Fountain.

Serra Negra, one of the most important spa centres in the country, is a city in Brazil, 150 kilometres from Sao Paulo. Its administrators say that to pay homage to Italian culture, which has strong ties to the territory due to massive immigration, they have reproduced the Trevi Fountain. The copy, completed in just over a year, at the cost of 1.6 million reales (about 300,000 euros), is 11 meters high and 20.7 meters wide, occupies an area of ​​370 square meters and uses 16,000 litres of waterfalls. The fountain built in Brazil takes up the original, in the eighteenth century by Pope Clement XII, and was created on the facade of Palazzo Pioli to revive a Roman-era aqueduct.

The measurements of the replica are smaller than the original, but the body of water is very similar, with its 20.7 meters wide, fed by nine thermal water jets. If there may be some points in common on the dimensions, the workmanship of the statues is entirely different: the Brazilian ones were made with silicone and plaster prints and covered with fibreglass.

There are two different points of view on the “copy and paste” operation of the Brazilian city. Some say that it testifies to the appreciation for the Trevi Fountain and, therefore, it has been reproduced, and those who argue that we are in the presence of exploitation of a unique monument in Rome. Among those angriest is the journalist Massimo Gramellini who accuses Italy of “renouncing the exclusive right to the Trevi Fountain out of carelessness or gullibility, although one does not exclude the other. A rare case of theft carried out with the approval (and indifference) of the person being robbed”.

In our opinion? Every artwork is beautiful and meaningful in its place. The fakes remember the real ones; keep them alive…