Monday, 3 August 2020

Tourist snaps toes off Italian sculpture while taking a selfie

An Austrian visitor to the Gipsoteca Museum in Possagno, Italy posed for a selfie while sitting on an original plaster cast sculpture created in 1804 by Antonio Canova. The gentleman managed to snap off two of the figure's toes before making a hasty exit.

Via The Art Newspaper

The tourist, identified as Austrian by the museum, “sat on the sculpture of Paolina Bonaparte… then left the museum in a hurry without reporting the incident”, officials say. The museum adds that guards discovered the damage “a few minutes later and raised the alarm”. One commentator responded on Facebook however: “How can you sit on a sculpture? We need to put up more security… You can’t get this close.”