US tourist smashes two ancient Vatican busts after being told he couldn’t see Pope Francis
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US tourist arrested for vandalizing two ancient Roman sculptures after being told he couldn’t see Pope Francis in Vatican
- An American tourist knocked over two ancient Roman busts at the Vatican Museums after being told he couldn’t meet Pope Francis
- Man was arrested by Vatican police after being stopped by museum staff
- The busts were damaged but not beyond repair, and restoration work on the artwork has already begun
- The two pieces are not said to be major works of art, but are about 2000 years old
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An American tourist on Wednesday toppled two ancient Roman busts in the Vatican Museums, causing moderate damage to the art when told he could not meet Pope Francis.
A museum source, who wished to remain anonymous as he was not authorized to talk about an ongoing investigation, said the man was in his 50s and had behaved “strangely”.
The man reportedly threw himself into a bust when told he couldn’t see Pope Francis, and ran into another while trying to flee museum security.
He knocked the two busts off their pedestals in the Chiaramonti Room of the Museums, which houses more than 1,000 pieces and is one of the most important collections of Roman portrait busts.
An American tourist knocked over two 2,000-year-old artworks when he was refused a meeting with Pope Francis, and a witness claimed he was behaving ‘strangely’
The incident reportedly took place in the museums’ Chiaramonti room, which is home to more than 1,000 pieces
The man, who is reportedly in his 50s, knocked over the statues when he was denied a meeting with Pope Francis and tried to flee the guards
“The busts were nailed to shelves, but if you pull them down with force, they come off,” said Matteo Alessandrini, a spokesman for the Vatican Museums. CNN.
‘The 2 busts are damaged, but not particularly bad. One lost part of a nose and an ear, the other’s head fell off the pedestal,” Alessandrini said.
Museum staff stopped the man and Vatican police arrived a few minutes later to arrest him.
The two busts were damaged, but not seriously, said Alessandrini, who claimed the pieces can be repaired but the restoration could take 300 hours.
“The shock was greater than the actual damage,” he added.
Photos taken by visitors and posted to social media showed the two broken busts on the marble floor. A source said the two pieces are not major works of art, but are about 2,000 years old.
After years of COVID restrictions having to close or shorten opening hours, the museums are now welcoming back tourists en masse. Before the pandemic, the museums received about six million visitors a year.
The most infamous attack on works of art in the Vatican took place in 1972 when a Hungarian man jumped over a side altar in St. Peter’s Basilica and attacked Michelangelo’s Pieta with a sledgehammer. He cut off Madonna’s left arm and cut off her nose and veil.
That Renaissance masterpiece is now behind bulletproof glass.