la Repubblica Europe, 17 October, Paolo Popoli: the Maradona mural, Largo Maradona, Via De Deo, the Spanish Quarter. For a few days, half a face. One painted shutter, open. The notice, in English too: “The window is broken. La finestra è rotta. P.S.: there’s no point shouting.” Occhio di Salerno, 4 October: the same words. This is not vandalism. It is a broken window. The owner broke the ritual: from the street they shout to close it, so the selfie has the whole face. This time, no use.

A carpenter came. The face is whole again, Repubblica says. la Repubblica Napoli, 3 October: in the morning, both shutters closed, the carpenter called. 5 October: the case on social media, the window shuts. CalcioNapoli24 put photos after the repair. The 17 October piece is an epilogue, not an open wound.

The window was not there from the start. Mario Filardi, 1990. Then the mural faded. A green roller shutter, where the face had been. 2016, Salvatore Iodice, a craftsman from the quarter: two wooden shutters, in the window’s gap. The face as it is now, Francisco Bosoletti. 2023, Iodice again, the Miniera workshop. After Diego’s death, a pilgrimage. Legal and illegal businesses, around the square, in the telling.

The square is now private land, open to the public. An agreement: the city, the Chamber of Commerce, operators, among them Antonio “Bostik” Esposito. Official opening, in the coming weeks, mayor and officials expected. It is not a date we set. The redevelopment, finished in September. €150,000, Idir Group, the Monzeglio family. Architect, Giuseppe Klain. Furniture, lights, paving, memorabilia, the mural repainted. People have come back. Some say the place has lost its spontaneity. Those behind Largo: “Things can change, places can be transformed, but the soul remains.”

The 2022 photograph is Via De Deo. It is not the broken shutter from October. The half-face lasted a few hours, then a carpenter. Until the ribbon is cut, what remains is the selfie and a card: no point shouting.

Image: Photo2023, mural on Via De Deo, Naples, 18 September 2022, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The 2022 street, not October 2026’s broken shutter.

Sources consulted: Maradona loses half his face in Naples — and gets it back after a social media outcry — la Repubblica Europe; Napoli, il murale di Maradona “dimezzato” da una finestra rotta — Occhio di Salerno.