Museum director burns art to protest against austerity

An Italian museum director in the mafia-influenced northeast of Naples has pledged to burn three works of art per week to protest against the lack of spending on culture.

Antonio Manfredi plans to torch a photograph entitled The great circus of Humanity by Filippos Tsitsopoulus, on Thursday. He has already destroyed two paintings and has selected three more works from the museum's collection of 1,000 for next week.

The 50-year-old Manfredi is a full-time artist who has been director of the Casoria Contemporary Art Museum for seven years.