Street art in Italy championing LGBTQ+ rights has sparked controversy as the country’s hard-right government has appeared to clamp down on same-sex parents in recent months. Right-wing commentators and politicians have described the works as “shameful” and “perverse”. One fiercely contested mural in the seaside town of Rimini was whitewashed in an apparent act of protest. The mural by the transgender street artist Oliver Vincenzi, which showed a bearded male feeding a child from an exposed breast, formed part of a larger local mural-painting project backed by Rimini’s left-wing mayor. It was mysteriously removed overnight on 3 April. In another work, the artist Andrea Villa pasted posters showing the Riace bronzes, two exceptionally well-preserved fifth century BC statues rediscovered in Calabria in 1972, along a busy street in Turin in March. The posters showed the two nude male figures from behind, overlaid with the words “Italy is Gay”.