In Italy, the police were able to find a vandal who, for a beautiful photo, sat down on a lying statue and beat off her toes. His identity was established thanks to the anti-coronavirus measures taken, reports The Daily Mirror.
The incident took place in the city of Possagno in northern Italy at the Gypsotheque museum. CCTV cameras captured a 50-year-old Austrian tourist wearing a bright green T-shirt and black shorts as he posed for a photo for his wife. To do this, he sat down on a plaster cast of the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, which was created 200 years ago and served as a model for the famous statue of Pauline Bonaparte.
After the shot was taken, the man stood up and found that he had broken the sculpture’s toes. CCTV cameras captured the moment at which the tourist looks puzzled at the desecrated monument, but then leaves with a calm look.
The vandal was found thanks to the new rules introduced due to the coronavirus: museum visitors must leave their contacts. After watching the video from the camera, the police were able to find the wife of the Austrian. The culprit admitted that posing for a photograph on the statue “was a stupid move.”
As the building notes, the angry president of the Antonio Canova Foundation Vittorio Zgarbi demanded to punish the man, calling such behavior “unacceptable”, and also said that this man should not “go unpunished and return to his homeland.”
Investigators told CNN that museum experts will have to figure out the likelihood of further damage to the base of the sculpture.
Now the authorized bodies are deciding whether it is necessary to bring the tourist to justice.
In July, vandals broke four fingers at the statue of Venus de Medici in Peterhof. Now the monument is to be restored.