A tourist from Georgia was detained while trying to steal a piece of tile from the unique mosaic of the cultural and historical complex of Pompeii. The man explained his actions by the desire to take "a piece of Pompeii as a keepsake."
Manuchar Kublashvili “appropriated” three fragments of an ancient mosaic from the house of Trittolemo (Domus di Trittolemo) in Pompeii. Some sources who know the details of the incident claim that the offender tried to leave when he was spotted by the police. On the go, he managed to get rid of two pieces of the fresco, and the third fragment was found in a fraudster’s pocket. Later, the workers of the complex returned the stolen to their places. The house of Trittolemo, which was attacked by a thief, was allegedly built more than two thousand years ago, in the 2nd century BC. Fortunately, it was well preserved after the terrible and tragic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79.
Meanwhile, the man, trying to justify his actions, claimed that he had committed the theft in Pompeii, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, not for personal gain at all. Kublashvili explained that he just wanted to bring a "souvenir" from Pompey. Administrators of the complex find it difficult to answer what punishment a man will suffer for what he has done. By the way, he is not the first tourist to show inappropriate behavior in hospitable Italy.
In March, a tourist from Canada was detained by the police after she tried to steal one of the bricks of the ancient Coliseum in the very center of Rome.
A young lady of 15, who was in the Eternal City as part of a school trip, later tried to explain to law enforcement officers that she only "wanted to bring a souvenir from one of the greatest buildings in the world." The girl was spotted by another tourist who even captured the moment of theft in the photo and told the Colosseum employees about this. The thief was detained by police who arrived shortly afterwards, her booty was confiscated and returned to her former place, and the girl was fined.
But this incident is not the worst that happened to experience the Colosseum, which had already seen the sight. In January of this year, the 45-year-old Australian and his 12-year-old son tried to leave graffiti on the walls of the main attraction of the Italian capital. The boy had already written the first two letters of his name on the brick wall of a building dating back to the 1st century, and his father was about to start depicting his name when the Colosseum noticed this disgrace and detained a couple before the arrival of the police. The man tried to erase his "creativity", but he did not succeed, and he was taken to the police station, where he was presented with charges of vandalism. His son was summoned to the juvenile court under the article “damage to property of historic interest.”
Unfortunately, last year sights of beautiful Florence turned out to be outbreaks of vandalism. In October 2013, a 27-year-old guest from Turkey was detained by city police after she dared to decorate the old Ponte Vecchio bridge with nail polish. The city authorities ordered the defiler of the sights to erase her creation and fined her 160 euros for vandalism.
Another curious case was the Santa Maria del Fiore art gallery, where an American tourist accidentally deprived one of his finger statues. The caretaker of the museum noticed the danger looming on the subject of art, but it was too late: the man touched the finger of the sculpture and accidentally broke it off. The damaged statue is part of the composition of the Florentine sculptor Giovanni d'Ambrogio, who created in the 14th and 15th centuries. Damage to the statue was corrected, but gallery staff complained that tourists had long forgotten the main rule of visiting the museum, which forbids touching the exhibits.