Italian law enforcement officers have identified an Austrian tourist who snapped toes off the original plaster model of the world-famous 19th-century sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte at a museum in the city of Possagno while trying to take a selfie
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th August, 2020) Italian law enforcement officers have identified an Austrian tourist who snapped toes off the original plaster model of the world-famous 19th-century sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte at a museum in the city of Possagno while trying to take a selfie.
Museum Gipsoteca Antonio Canova wrote on Facebook that the incident happened on Saturday. An Austrian tourist sat on the sculpture, snapping two of its toes off, and hurriedly left the museum, without informing anyone.
In the museum's guestbook, the Italian carabinieri found the contacts of a woman who had booked a visit of the tourist group in question, in line with coronavirus rules. She happened to be the wife of the man who had committed an unwitting act of vandalism.
According to Il Corriere della Sera newspaper, the self-taker is ready to pay for the sculpture's restoration. The investigation materials have been referred to the prosecutor's office of Treviso province.
Antonio Canova is a renowned Neoclassical sculptor. It is the marble sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte, the middle and most beloved sister of the French emperor, that made him famous. The sculpture depicting Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix (or Venus Victorious) is displayed at Borghese Gallery in Rome.
