A group of Venetian separatists who scaled St Mark's bell-tower in 1997 have bought back the makeshift tank they used to storm the Venice monument. The self-styled Veneto Serenissimo Governo (VSG) paid over 6,000 euros at an auction here, beating the Italian police who put in a protest bid.
VSG affiliate Geremia Agnoletti said the so-called 'tanko' - which has been in police custody for the last nine years - was a symbol of their fight for a free Veneto. The 'tanko', a haphazardly armour-clad truck which frightened Carabinieri into allowing the group to pass, took ten years to build as the group laid careful plans for their stunt, going through six prototypes.
Agnoletti said the VSG would continue its fight "to liberate all the people of the Veneto".
He proudly told reporters that the separatists did not recognise the central government in Rome and "of course did not support the Azzurri last night" in Italy's World Cup semi-final win over Germany. In May 1997 eight members of the 'Serenissimi' group, some bearing hunting rifles, scaled the famed bell-tower and occupied it for several hours in a stunt designed to draw attention to their cause.
When Northern League MP Roberto Castelli became justice minister in 2001, he made it one of his first periorities to again clemency for the group, some of whom had received sizeable jail sentences on the charge of armed insurrection.
The Veneto Serenissimo Governo draws inspiration from Venice's long and glorious history as an independent republic
known as La Serenissima.
