Accidental toe-rist
Man poses for pic on museum statue – and snaps its foot
A tourist who posed for a picture next to a 200year- old museum piece didn’t quite get the snap he intended.
For as he leant on the 19th century statue, he accidentally broke off three of its toes.
Worse still, the incident, at an italian gallery, was captured on its CCTV.
Footage shows the man, a 50year-old from Austria who has not been named, leaping up on to the base of the statue – a plaster model used by sculptor Antonio Canova to create his marble masterpiece Paolina Borghese Bonaparte As Venus Victrix.
the incident occurred last week at the Gipsoteca Antonio Canova museum in Possagno, about 40 miles north of Venice.
the man was reportedly identified through personal contact details left at the sculpture gallery as part of new requirements for tracking visitors amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Police said he was in a group of Austrian tourists but broke away from his friends to pose for a photograph while sprawled over the statue, a life- size reclining semi-nude woman. When contacted by officers, he confessed to the ‘stupid move’. According to investigators, he could have caused further damage to the base as yet undetected.
Canova, who lived from 1757 to 1822, was part of the italian neoclassical movement and was renowned for his marble statues. the Venus Victrix, or Venus Victorious, was created between 1805 and 1808. it depicts Paolina Bonaparte – Napoleon’s younger sister – who married italian nobleman Camillo Borghese in 1803. He commissioned the work, which is now in the Galleria Borghese in rome.