Tourists branded ‘imbeciles’ for destroying €200,000 Italian statue

Those behind the damage ‘must pay a steep price’, says regional politician

Tourists who destroyed an Italian sculpture valued at €200,000 have been denounced as “imbeciles” by the country’s deputy prime minister, with a local politician demanding reparations for their actions.

A group of 17 tourists were renting a villa in the town of Viggiu, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy, when the damage to the 150-year-old artwork occurred – and was captured on CCTV.

Two of the group climbed into the fountain to wrap their arms around the sculpture, Domina by the artist Enrico Butti, while another pushed it with a stick before it crashed to the ground.

Bruno Golferini, the manager of Villa Aleco, told Reuters that he had reported all of those staying to the police, though they have since left Italy.

“When we realised it, it was too late,” Mr Golferini told Italian news station TGCOM24. “The boys did not respect the ban on entering the fountain and were filmed by video surveillance cameras while two of them embraced the statue, dropping it and destroying it, while four of their comrades shot videos with their cell phones.”

He added that it would be hard to repair because of additional damage to the tiles in the fountain.

According to Euronews, a well-known German influencer is suspected of being part of the group.

“These are no influencers, they should be called imbeciles,” said Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and minister of infrastructure and transport, reports The New Zealand Herald.

Francesca Caruso, culture councillor for the Lombardy region, told news agency Corriere della Sera that they would seek compensation from the group: “Those who damage the artistic and cultural heritage must pay a steep price.”

It comes a month after two incidents of vandalism elsewhere in Italy.

At the start of July, a British tourist attracted outrage in Rome after being accused of carving his name into the Colosseum walls with a key. He is facing up to five years in prison and a €15,000 fine.

Soon after, a Swiss teenager became the latest offender to start carving her name into the ancient amphitheatre. The 17-year-old was caught in the act, with a local tour guide managing to video her scratching the letter N into the wall of the famous landmark.