The 27-year-old tourist is accused of damaging works of art after damaging the wall of an ancient Roman house near Pompeii by writing his name on it with a marker pen
- Tourist is caught vandalizing an ancient Roman house near Naples
- The 27-year-old man is now accused of damaging artistic works
A Dutch tourist has been arrested for damaging the Domus excavations that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples.
The unnamed 27-year-old man was detained after staff discovered graffiti on a frescoed wall in an ancient Roman villa in Herculaneum on Monday.
Italian police said in a statement that the graffiti, applied with a black permanent marker, matched the man’s signature.
“Any damage damages our heritage, our beauty and our identity and therefore it must be punished with the utmost determination,” Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said.
According to The independentthe unnamed tourist faces accusations of damaging and mutilating artistic works.
A sign made with a black marker on the wall of a domus of the Herculaneum archaeological park, in Ercolano, Naples, Italy
Herculaneum is a small city near Pompeii. After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, it was buried under ash, leaving the ruins well preserved.
This is not the first time that a historic site in Italy has been damaged. In 2023, two German men were arrested by police after allegedly using black spray to write ‘DKS 1860’ on the 460-year-old columns of Florence’s iconic Vasari corridor.
The corridor connects the valuable Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace and was originally built for the powerful Medici family.
It is believed that the disrespectful act is a reference to the German Division Three in 1860 Munich.
Also that year, two tourists carved their names into the wall of the 2,000-year-old Colosseum.