A giant middle finger statue in Milan
New York celebrates the power and the optimism of Wall Street with a statue of a charging bull in the Financial District of Manhattan. Milan, on the other hand, is a bit more disillusioned about the merits of the financial world.
At the very centre of Piazza Affari, the square in Milan where the Italian stock exchange has its headquarters, is a marble statue depicting a hand with only its middle finger standing up. If you look closely, you’ll see that the other fingers are not flexed, but they look as if they were cut off. The impression is the same nevertheless: an unambiguous “fuck you” to the world of bankers and CEOs.
The statue bears the title of L.O.V.E., which stands for Libertà, Odio, Vendetta, Eternità (Freedom, Hate, Vengeance, Eternity) and was created in 2010 by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, known for his provocative works. The statue was supposed to stay in Piazza Affari for just a couple of weeks, but the city government decided to keep it there indefinitely.