Spanish tourist stripped in front of Botticelli's Birth of Venus

A Spanish tourist startled visitors to the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy on Saturday after stripping naked in front of one of the most famous artworks of the Renaissance.



Standing in front of Sandro Botticelli’s alluring Birth of Venus, which depicts the classical goddess of love and beauty emerging from the sea and floating on a seashell, the 25-year-old man casually removed all his clothes.





He then placed his hands in the same position as the goddess – one on his chest and the other on top of his thigh – before kneeling down and scattering rose petals across the floor.



Shocked gallery staff immediately intervened, with one attempting to cover the man with a towel while the other called the police. The man is said to have shouted “freedom, freedom!” as he was taken away by police and later charged for an obscene act in public.