ReutersThe moment the image dies
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 08:08
A selfie taken by German tourists has killed a 150-year-old work of art in Italy. It broke into several pieces when two young people fell over with it.
It’s about the sculpture Domina by artist Enrico Butti (1847-1932), which formed the centerpiece of a fountain at a villa in the northern Italian town of Viggiù, near Varese in Lombardy. The villa was rented by a German influencer who was having a party with sixteen friends.
It went wrong when two guests stepped into the fountain to take pictures with the statue. They fell over when they were pricked with a stick by a third person and dragged Domina mee.
Security cameras from the villa captured the moment:
Antique artwork in ruins by selfie of Germans
According to the administrator, the statue was worth 200,000 euros. According to him, the damage can never be completely repaired. The fountain was also damaged by the falling statue.
“It reminded me of the looting of ancient times, when the barbarians destroyed everything and threw the images of our gods on the ground,” the villa’s manager told an Italian newspaper. According to him, it is forbidden for guests to enter the fountain at all.
The manager is furious that he didn’t even get an apology from the guests. They only wanted to pay 200 euros in compensation. Because the seventeen Germans have now returned home, he hopes that Interpol will get involved.
Parallels are drawn in Italian media with the British tourist who carved his name in a wall of the Colosseum. This caused quite a stir in the country. The man apologized when police tracked him down and stated that he was unaware the building was that old.
2023-08-04 06:08:32
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