An ancient sculpture in Italy now lacks some of his fingers, thanks to a tourist who is in a hurry. The man broke the 200-year-old sculpture last week by posing for a photo, the museum said.
The tourist, who is from Austria, broke several meters from the original plaster of “Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix” at the Antonio Canova Museum in Possagno on Friday. The museum said the guest relied on the sculpture to imitate his pose for a photo shoot.
The images received through Reuters verify that the guy sitting directly on the sculpture while another user appears to be taking a photo. The guy gets up, turns around to see the obvious damage, before temporarily moving away.
The guest left the museum without reporting the wounded, the museum said Saturday in a Facebook post. A museum official saw the injured minutes after the incident and declared an emergency.
The sculpture commissioned in 1804 through Prince Camillo Borghese and made through Antonio Canova, one of Italy’s most important neoclassical sculptors. The one shown in northern Italy is the original plaster of the iconic marble version, which is located in Rome’s Galleria Borghese.
The paintings are part of the museum’s “gypsoteca”, a collection of plasters used to sink bronze, marble and terracotta statues, which by definition are incredibly fragile. The museum was able to learn about the missing fragments and said there will be discussions in the coming weeks about the recovery of the paintings.
The museum presses that “your heritage will have to be protected”. He encouraged visitors to behave responsibly and respect art paintings so that they can “proudly be transmitted to past generations.”
In a Facebook post after the incident, Canova Foundation President Vittorio Sgarbi asked police to stop the tourist and allow him to return home. “Canova’s scar is unacceptable,” he said.
According to Artnet News, the new law in Italy may simply increase the maximum penalty for vandalizing art to 8 years in a crime and a fine of $117,000.
The museum said it knew the tourist guilty of damage to surveillance footage and a new guest record required since the country reopened after its coronavirus closure. He also wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that he had since “returned” and had written a letter to Sgarbi after reading the incident in Austrian newspapers.
The tourist, who remains unnamed but originally from Aistersheim, said his behaviour is “irresponsible” and is unaware of the “consequences.” He also apologized “in each and every sense” and asked if he could help rectify the situation. Sgarbi said he appreciated the apology.