Furious tourist smashes two statues at Vatican City museum
An American tourist visiting Rome has smashed two 2000-year-old statues, enraged by the fact that he was denied a meeting with Pope Francis.
Occurring at around noon on October 5th, the tourist requested that he meet with the Pope while visiting the Vatican’s Chiaramonti Museum in Vatican City. Fuming when his ambitious request was denied, the man in his 50s channelled his rage by smashing two ancient busts, storming out the museum in the process before he was apprehended.
An official statement from the Vatican read: “The person who knocked down the statues was stopped by the Vatican police and has been handed over to the Italian authorities”.
Both pieces of art have now been taken to a conservation laboratory, with the statement adding: “Now the experts are weighing the damage and proceeding to recover the fragments for immediate restoration”. A representative from the museum told Il Messaggero that, thankfully, the two damaged pieces of art were only “minor works” within the museum’s vast collection which includes around 1000 sculptures.
Reports of vandalism and damage to such cultural heritage sites and pieces of art have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Spanish Steps, not far from the site of the Chiaramonti Museum, having also been damaged in recent months.
Meanwhile, climate activists who have been glueing themselves to valuable pieces of art in protest against the lack of governmental action in support of environmental measures may have helped to increase such vandalism.
