Two ancient busts shattered on the marble floor of the gallery, with their faces disfigured by a gesture of madness that lasted a few seconds. It is the disfigurement carried out by an American tourist at the Vatican Museums in Rome – a symbolic place of a world historical heritage – which has upset the astonished visitors and indignant guides, art and ordinary citizens.
The gesture was made by a 65-year-old American with mental problems who in the late morning, after having regularly paid for the ticket, walking through the Chiaramonti gallery, began to scream meaningless phrases – according to some witnesses even to see the Pope – and then pull down from the shelves of the long corridor of statues first one bust and then the other, both thrown to the ground, while the men of the Vatican gendarmerie rushed to the 65-year-old to block him and avoid worse damage.
Subsequently it was handed over to the Italian provisions “according to article 22 of the Lateran Pacts”, so that “he does not repeat the crime”.
Once the man, who is a US citizen but was born in Egypt, was interrogated, the inspectorate agents immediately realized that the tourist – in the capital for three days – is suffering from psychological problems as well as having a precedent for acts obscene in his country: those given to the police have been declared ‘farnetcanti’.
The 65-year-old was denounced by the police for aggravated damage: the parts of the nose and ear of one torso broke off in the impact on the ground, while on the other the base came off. The two sculptures, which would belong to a gallery where there were also statues of ordinary people of the faces of ancient Rome and Greece, were brought to the Vatican laboratories while the fragments were recovered hoping that they can now be restored to return to that gallery. where, art critics explained in the past, walking “is like leafing through an album in stone”.
Not even the complex and sophisticated video surveillance system inside the museum, installed to ensure maximum safety for visitors and the exhibited works, could not foresee this sudden act of madness, which was nevertheless in the bud by the men of the gendarmerie, who limited damage to other works of even higher value. With the Jubilee upon us, the episode adds new concerns about the risks and preservation of the beauties of one of the most visited museums in the world.
Ah, he’s mentally ill, I don’t think him being American means squat in this case. That’s unfortunate for the statues.
As an American, I’m sorry you have to deal with assholes like him. Most of us are not like that
10 years in the “better not drop the soap” kind of maximum security prison would suffice for this piece of turd.
If you dont have any remarkable culture on your own, just destroy someone elses
I feel like the headline is needlessly xenophobic. „Mentally ill visitor“ is not as click-baity as „American tourist“ though.
Thank you, now they will put every item far away from the public behind glasses just because of some stupid people.
8 comments
Two ancient busts shattered on the marble floor of the gallery, with their faces disfigured by a gesture of madness that lasted a few seconds. It is the disfigurement carried out by an American tourist at the Vatican Museums in Rome – a symbolic place of a world historical heritage – which has upset the astonished visitors and indignant guides, art and ordinary citizens.
The gesture was made by a 65-year-old American with mental problems who in the late morning, after having regularly paid for the ticket, walking through the Chiaramonti gallery, began to scream meaningless phrases – according to some witnesses even to see the Pope – and then pull down from the shelves of the long corridor of statues first one bust and then the other, both thrown to the ground, while the men of the Vatican gendarmerie rushed to the 65-year-old to block him and avoid worse damage.
Subsequently it was handed over to the Italian provisions “according to article 22 of the Lateran Pacts”, so that “he does not repeat the crime”.
Once the man, who is a US citizen but was born in Egypt, was interrogated, the inspectorate agents immediately realized that the tourist – in the capital for three days – is suffering from psychological problems as well as having a precedent for acts obscene in his country: those given to the police have been declared ‘farnetcanti’.
The 65-year-old was denounced by the police for aggravated damage: the parts of the nose and ear of one torso broke off in the impact on the ground, while on the other the base came off. The two sculptures, which would belong to a gallery where there were also statues of ordinary people of the faces of ancient Rome and Greece, were brought to the Vatican laboratories while the fragments were recovered hoping that they can now be restored to return to that gallery. where, art critics explained in the past, walking “is like leafing through an album in stone”.
Not even the complex and sophisticated video surveillance system inside the museum, installed to ensure maximum safety for visitors and the exhibited works, could not foresee this sudden act of madness, which was nevertheless in the bud by the men of the gendarmerie, who limited damage to other works of even higher value. With the Jubilee upon us, the episode adds new concerns about the risks and preservation of the beauties of one of the most visited museums in the world.
Ah, he’s mentally ill, I don’t think him being American means squat in this case. That’s unfortunate for the statues.
As an American, I’m sorry you have to deal with assholes like him. Most of us are not like that
10 years in the “better not drop the soap” kind of maximum security prison would suffice for this piece of turd.
If you dont have any remarkable culture on your own, just destroy someone elses
I feel like the headline is needlessly xenophobic. „Mentally ill visitor“ is not as click-baity as „American tourist“ though.
Thank you, now they will put every item far away from the public behind glasses just because of some stupid people.
Ban them.