As many of us grew up, any time we went to a place that had valuable or expensive items, Mom may have said to not touch anything or to keep your hands in your pockets. She didn’t do it just for your own good, so you wouldn’t get in trouble, but it also was so Mom wasn’t stuck with the “you break it, you buy it” policy.
This video is exactly why she was so adamant about that request. At a museum in Passagano, Italy, a couple of Australian tourists went a little too far when they were posing, not in front of, but ON one of the pieces of art. Not only was the problem they were touching the artwork, but the man who was posing, walked off with 3 toes from the statue.
The statue that was disfigured was from Italian Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova’s statue of Paolina Bonaparte. You can see, in the video below, the man who was laying on the sculpture, got up and looks down, then picks up something from below where he was leaning. Those “things” were the sculptures toes.
Tourist snaps toes off a Canova sculpture while posing for photo in Italy pic.twitter.com/9wNNsipTF5
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 5, 2020
The bigger problem isn’t just the toes, but because the man didn’t read the signs, it looks as though his posing on the artwork may have caused even more damage. But thanks to the whole “contact tracing” thing, you have to leave your personal information when you enter the museum and the family was found. There was crying and weeping because what they did was a “stupid move”.
This situation isn’t over yet, as a matter of fact, the museum wants this person to be punished. As for if, when and what kind of punishment, it has yet to be determined, but the museum said it was “unacceptable”.
THIS is why Mom always said, “Don’t Touch Things That Aren’t Yours”. As an adult, it is a good rule of thumb to not touch things you can’t afford.