Vatican Museums, American tourist throws two busts to the ground. He wanted to meet the Pope- Corriere.it

Vandalism to the monuments of the capital
. D.

eu marble bustsor were thrown to the ground inside the Vatican Museums in Rome Wednesday around 1pm from a tourist American of Egyptian descent and about 60 years old

. It was there to shatter marble base of a bustin the two faces, on the other hand, an ear and a nose are damaged. Lman was agitated and would have said he wanted to talk to the Pope. For three days in the capital, he has a history of indecent public indecency in the United States.

The vandal threw him to the ground the two Roman marble busts (1st century AD) inside the Chiaramonti Gallery, the splendid collection created under Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800-1823) with more than 100 busts and dozens of statues and sarcophagi and set up by Antonio
Canova in the loggia between the Palazzetto di Belvedere and the ensemble of the Vatican palaces.

Never happened in the last few decades –

assure from the Vatican -. In the seven kilometers of museum galleries there are cameras and security guards how display cases and barriers. Most of the works are frescoes and therefore distant from the visitor, unfortunately the Gallery is the only room where the works are at hand.

Equipped with entrance ticket to the Museums (21 euros), the tourist walked through the Gallery halfway before grabbing the two busts for throw them to the ground. They intervened at the first thud the keepers who have warned the Gendarmerie on duty daily at the Vatican Museums, the man was hunted down. There
Gendarmerie Vaticanin accordance with article 22 of the Lateran Pacts, then handed the man over to the Italian police who transferred him to the police station for the interrogation

.

The two busts, which represent little known characterswere anchored with screws shelves obtained from ancient architectural frames always by Roman times


. From the Vatican they communicate that i the damage suffered by the torsos is not significant, the faces have not undergone major damage, perhaps one of the two specimens did detached a piece of the nose. The sculptures are already at Restoration workshop marbles of the Vatican Museums.

L’preparation of the Gallery it was carried out starting from 1806 according to the order of Antonio Canova after having recovered the works from France, previously ceded to Napoleon. The criteria for setting up Canova aimed at approach the three sister artssculpture (in ancient works), architecture (in the shelves) and painting (in the frescoes), avoiding to isolate the masterpieces and favoring a close comparison between the works, even minor ones. The more than one hundred busts in the collection are less than one meter apartthe statues are placed every 5 meters.

The memory runs to the May 21, 1972 when a 34-year-old Australian geologist of Hungarian descent Lszl Tth, evading surveillance, managed to hit with a hammer there Piet by Michelangelo inside the St. Peter’s Basilica. The humor hit the work fifteen times in a few seconds, shouting I am Jesus Christ, risen from the dead !. Since then the sculpture protected by a glass case.