WE, THE SITUATIONISTS, protest against the hypocritical internment in an insane asylum of Nunzio Van Guglielmi, because this past June, in Milan, he succeded in slightly damaging a mediocre painting by Raphael.
We certify that the content of the placard affixed to Raphael's painting by Guglielmi -- "Long live the Italian revolution! Down with the clerical government!" -- expresses the opinion of a large number of Italians, ourselves included.
We would like to draw attention to the fact that it would be a crime against veritable psychiatric science to interpet this act of hostility towards the Church and the dead cultural values of the museum, with the help of the psychiatric police, as a sufficient proof of madness.
We empahsize the peril that such a precedent poses to all free men and all cultural and artistic development to come.
Freedom lies in the destruction of idols.
Our appeal is addressed to all the artists and intellectuals of Italy, for whom the liberation of Nunzio Van Guglielmi from life-long internment is an immediate question. Guglielmi can only be condemned in terms of the law that foresees the alienation of public goods.
(Originally published in Italian on 4 July 1958 as Difendete la liberta ovunque and issued in the name of the Italian section of the Situationist International. Written by Guy Debord and Pinot Gallizio. Written in Alba, printed in Paris, and distributed in Milan. Translated from the Italian into French by Luc Mercier and published 1997 in Archives situationnistes. Volume 1. Documents traduits. 1958-1970. Translated from the French version by NOT BORED!, May 2005.)