An illustration circulates on Facebook along with the text: “This painting was made in 1962 by the artist Walter Molino and he called it ‘life in 2022’. Unusual, isn’t it? What do you think?” (sic). The image shows several people in individual vehicles protected by a transparent plate.

However, this publication is misleading, because it “partially coincides with certain data, but (intentionally or not) has been manipulated to generate a particular message”.

It is true that the illustration -which was shared on Facebook more than 80,000 times- was made by Molino in 1962, but it is false that it is entitled “Life in 2022” and that it is linked to the social distancing that governs as a way to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The illustration is by Molino, but does not refer to the year 2022

The illustration was published on December 16, 1962 on the back cover of the Italian magazine La Domenica del Corriere. This is corroborated by a note published last May 18th by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera -with which La Domenica del Corriere was distributed.

In addition, the image was manipulated and cut out. The illustration that was published on the back cover of the Italian magazine included a text that stated that “the problem of traffic in cities” could be solved with the imaginary vehicles painted by Molino called singolette, which in Spanish means “T-shirts”.

In addition, the cover of that publication of December 16, 1962 does not make any reference to the year 2022 either, contrary to what the viral publication states.

This check is part of the Third Party Fact-checker initiative of Facebook in Argentina. In the cases of photos and videos we work with truncated or out-of-context images and always analyze the images together with the text with which they were presented.