The incident took place in the Italian city’s world famous Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, with the 600-year-old exhibit believed to be the work of eminent medieval sculptor Giovanni d'Ambrogio. The tourist is said to have apologised for damaging the priceless artwork, but could still receive a large fine for his careless behaviour.
Before any financial penalty can be arranged, however, the American tourist has suffered the full force of Florentine fury over the incident, which locals consider symptomatic of a modern thoughtless and disrespectful attitude towards fragile ancient artworks. Timothy Verdun, the head of the museum and coincidentally an American himself, condemned the tourist’s behaviour
He said: “In a globalized world like ours, the fundamental rules for visiting a museum have been forgotten, that is, ‘Do not touch the works’”. Mr Verdun added that the price of any repair was not yet known and that, even if it was considered affordable, there was no guarantee that the restoration would be a success
3 comments:
Has the man NEVER been in an art museum before ? I can't believe he wouldn't know enough not to touch things there, here or anywhere else
What I suspect is that the finger was just lying loose atop the metal pin, and that just brushing against it would have knocked it off. Any accidental touch would have done it.
That said, I agree that getting that close to a work of art isn't exactly smart.
Lurker111
"Any accidental touch would have done it." Yeah..that's why you don't touch the blessed things as your parents patiently taught you when you grew up.
But I guess that is why packages with peanuts got warning-labels with "contain nuts" on them in USA.
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