There has been outrage in Italy after a female tourist in Florence was pictured miming a lewd act on a statue of the Roman god Bacchus.
In the photos - which were shared online by the social media account Welcome To Florence - the woman can also be seen kissing the life-size statue at nighttime.
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The photos sparked angry reactions from social media users, some of whom called for the woman’s arrest.
“This is the result of years of attempts at turning Florence into Disneyland,” said another.
Patrizia Asproni, the president of Confcultura, an association that promotes Italy’s cultural heritage, told Italian media that these “repeated shows of rudeness and barbarity” take place “because everyone feels entitled to do whatever they want with impunity”.
Ms Asproni called for the application of the “Singapore model” with “tight checks, sky-high fines and zero tolerance” for bad behaviour.
Antonella Rinaldi, Florence’s archaeology and fine arts superintendent, said: “Tourists are welcome here but they need to respect our artworks, be they originals or replicas.”
“Although I doubt this lady - whom I condemn - even knows the difference,” she added.
I feel like if you’re gonna have a Bacchus statue, you need to expect his worshippers to come around.
Yeah, sorry, but if this was almost any other statue, I’d be pissed too. But it’s Bacchus. There are some deities that, if they have a statue, you kinda have to not only expect such things, but accept it as the way of human nature.
Like. If you have a statue of a deity of fertility, people are just going to be drawn to making sexual acts on or near it. That’s just what people do, it’s even what they’re supposed to do with religious icons of that nature.
Yeah, there’s the need to preserve art, but that’s a different issue than whining about something so common and predictable.
Please don’t be American, please don’t be American…
But if I had to make a bet…
I’d put decent money on her being a pissed Brit on a hen do.
Today I learned what a hen do is :D
You’re welcome.
It’s one thing to take a cheeky photo. It’s another to fucking climb on a statue and risk breaking it. Idiot.
It is stupid, but its also Baccus. Talking about putting up security fencing and adding incredible fines to protect the “god of debauchery” comes off a bit confused.
If anything Bacchus himself would probably ask why she stopped at kissing.
She didn’t.
It’s not the original, fwiw:
The Bacchus stands on a plinth on a street corner near the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge and is a modern replica of the 16th Century work by sculptor Giambologna. The original is kept in the nearby Bargello museum.
I’m sure there used to be a statue molesting website back in the day but it remains elusive.
She’s just been barred from the Eden Centre.
