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Tourist Breaks Crystal Italian Museum Piece Then Makes Hasty Exit, Netizens Guess Where They’re From
Two tourists visiting a museum in Italy were caught on a security camera breaking a crystal-covered art exhibit.
The “delicate” chair, covered with hundreds of Swarovski crystals on display in Verona’s Palazzo Maffei, was positioned under a CCTV camera and collapsed when one of the visitors sat on it for a photo.
The incident sent the museum into crisis mode, prompting intervention from law enforcement.
Highlights
- Two tourists sat on a delicate and expensive museum exhibit, breaking it.
- They did not tell the staff, opting instead for a hasty exit.
- The museum went into crisis mode and said that not owning up made it less of an accident.
No information on the identities of individuals responsible for the damage has been shared, but the internet is sure of their nationality.
The Museum says that the culprits made it less of an accident by not owning up
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Image credits: Vincent van Gogh
In a post on Instagram, the Museum called on its patrons to “respect its art,” after lashing out at the perpetrators, saying: “sometimes we lose our brains to take a picture, and we don’t think about the consequences.”
Although the museum only went public with the incident on June 12, some believe the chair was broken in April.
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
The organization’s director, Vanessa Carlon, indicated that the individuals made their infraction worse by not owning up to their blunder.
She said: “Of course it was an accident, but these two people left without speaking to us – that isn’t an accident.”
The museum initially thought they would were unable to repair the chair
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
The organization posted a video of the incident to its Instagram account and captioned it with a rebuke.
The accompanying note explained that the culprits waited for security personnel to leave the room before perpetrating what it is now calling vandalism.
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
The chair, designed by Italian artist Nicola Bolla and named after Dutch Post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh, was noted for being delicate.
“The result?” the post’s caption continues, “an irresponsible gesture [that] caused serious damage.”
Carlon said she was worried about whether restoring the chair would be possible.
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
“We are sharing this episode not only for the sake of reporting, but to start a real campaign to raise awareness about the value of art and the respect it deserves,” the message concluded.
The culprits made a hasty exit when they realized what they had done
The Instagram video shows the culprits, a man and a woman, with their cameras posing around the chair while they take photos of each other. The woman goes first, but only leans over the artwork while her male companion snaps away.
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
When it was the man’s turn, he took it a step further and actually sat on the chair, causing its back legs to slide off the supporting pedestal, while the front two buckled.
The woman rushed forward to help her partner to his feet again before the two made a hasty exit from the otherwise empty room.
View this post on Instagram
No mention was made of the culprits being identified. Be this as it may, social media has ideas about their country of origin.
Image credits: Panacure52997
Image credits: ThreadedVoice
One comment: “This is exactly why Americans should stay at home. You can’t take us anywhere. Lol,” drew more than 1,400 reactions and mirrored a dominating sentiment.
Another recounted their personal experience in the European culture, noting that it was unusual that these two visitors were left unsupervised.
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
“I just spent 34 days in Italy. They always have a security person watch the art. This is weird, no one is around,” they wrote.
Another group on social media found fault with the Museum, pointing out that the artefact was neither behind glass nor behind a cordon, making it difficult to know that it was an exhibit.
Image credits: Vincent van Gogh
“I mean, if you put a chair somewhere, you gotta think that someone would actually use it as one. If you don’t want it to be used, then how about putting it behind glass or something,” wrote one person on Facebook.
The chair has been restored to its former glory
Image credits: Palazzo Maffei
The museum has since indicated that the chair has been repaired. It reached out, extending thanks to members of their security team and the law enforcement community at the restaurant in the area.
It is unclear how these entities contributed to the artefact’s restoration.
Many believe the chair should have been cordoned off
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What do you think ?
tameson 8 months ago
I don't understand all the comments saying it wasn't their fault because there was no gaurd present and it wasn't roped off. If it was an honest mistake than why did they wait until the security guard left before trying to sit on it? And, honestly, who in their right mind thinks that a crystal covered chair in a museum was meant to be sat on?
Petra Peitsch 8 months ago
Yeah, all those comments: "The chair must have been guarded ... must have been separeted by a cordon", are just insane, showing, how little common sense have some people nowadays. Kens and Karens .. and yes, I'm looking at your main country of origin!
Load More Replies...
Brenda 8 months ago
Comments are funny, people saying not their fault. It needed protection. Maybe people need to have brains, and common sense and respect. Gets really tired that the entitled people have no respect for anything and " it's all about me and what I want, f*ck you and everything else"
Deborah B 8 months ago
They didn't accidentally sit on a chair thinking it was okay. They deliberately and knowingly sat on a sculpture of a chair, in order to take photos of themselves doing so, despite knowing it wasn't allowed. They assumed the chair would survive. When they broke it, they left instead of facing being asked to pay for the artwork they just destroyed.
Bec 8 months ago
Yes, I'm the videos and stills they getting pictures. I don't even think he 'sat down', he's just too fat and out of shape to be able to hover above it for the shot.
Load More Replies... Tabitha 8 months ago
I see something on the seat of the chair before the tourist sat down. Bet it was a notice to NOT sit on the chair. So there was a warning, if they’d opened their eyes and read it.
Annabelle 8 months ago (edited)
These are the same people who, when their kids break things at other people's homes, tell the homeowner they should have put things away. They then get retaliatory when they are no longer invited, and if there is any injury, you better believe they sue. They pretended to sit on the chair for the initial photo, KNOWING it was not to be sat on, before his dumb@ss put his full weight on a crystallized piece of art. Gtfo about signs and ropes.
Rick Murray 8 months ago
I'll give you signs and ropes. Big rope around that idiot's neck, and an even bigger sign that points to him and says "This is what happens when you come to our country and desecrate our art." 😉
Load More Replies...
Tonyah Mcanelly 8 months ago
The comments that condone him. NO this is not ok its clearly an exhibit roped off or not alot of museums have open exhibits doesn't mean you can touch it people need to use common sense . This remind me of the Royal Guardsmen getting hackled and people touching the horses with signs that are clearly posted. its all fun and games until some one gets put in their place.
Jerome Lenovo 8 months ago
funny to see in the comments that people kinda know where the tourists are from and trying to poorly find excuses for the uneducated behavior of their fellow countrymen.
Rick Murray 8 months ago
Doesn't look like an "he was tired" to me. Look at her phone position, they were going to take photos sitting on it.
BrunoVI 8 months ago
I was going to comment based on the thumbnail photo that it's so unusual for "art" to be left in the open like that in the US or at least much of Europe that it's kind of on the museum to recognize that if you put out a chair, people will sit on it. "Ooh, go figure such a hoity toity museum would have such a fancy chair." But seeing the other pics, it's obvious the culprit was like, "hey Marge! Check this out! I'm sitting on the 'art'"
sofacushionfort 8 months ago
Take an object of pathos but high Art credibility (the chair from Van Gogh’s painting of his humble room) and cover it with sparklies (derivative of Damien Hirst). I wouldn’t waste time looking at it, much less sit on it.
JK 8 months ago
"It needs a rope/glass round it" - my dudes. It was *on a pedestal* literally on top of a square pedestal that raised it off the ground and made it difficult to sit in by accident. And the gallery themselves admit there *was* security in the room, but the couple waited until the moment the guard left. They *knew* it was an exhibit, they wouldn't have taken a pic with her leaned over and not touching it first. Or they'd have openly done it in front of the guard if they thought it wasn't an exhibit.
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 8 months ago
If you need a rope or a glass case to tell you to not sit on the art, you need a brain transplant.
Bored Birgit 8 months ago
The couple should speak up now at least to show their regrets. Bet someone recognizes them.
Raymond Core 8 months ago
It is people like this who are the reason we can't have nice things. I might have been lenient if they hadn't run away from what they did.
Laura Slade 8 months ago
A crystal chair on a pedestal and people think it's for sitting on? FFS
HardBoiledBlonde 8 months ago
It looks like the culprits are from the US. I will now hold my tongue for I too am from the US.
Serena Myers 8 months ago
"Two of the chair's legs were broken but the museum was able to restore them"
Janissary35680 8 months ago
I think one of the commenters got it right: "Feels like this was part of the art." This has the hallmarks of a performance art (AKA Candid Camera) setup. Private galleries are known to pull stunts like this.
SkippityBoppityBoo 8 months ago
I once did an art piece called "The R-Word Triptych". It was three chairs I painted white and each one was different to the other. They were exhibited at two art galleries here on separate occasions. The R-Word Triptych... It was an art piece I made in an art therapy group after I'd been r*ped at knife point. I'd found the chairs on the street by the big huge bins, carried them home... Repurposed them... They had Huge meaning to me. I was recovering... Those chairs represented a very deep, serious time of my life. I was getting better, I was going forward to my new life... As were the chairs... From being rescued from beside a bin to receiving an award for the art piece....... My god... If ANYONE had even DARED to sit on them? Art isn't always "roped off" and are you an actual Adult capable of actual thought? It's quite obviously an art piece and why are people bleating - "It should've been roped off"??? You're in an actual ART GALLERY! Have you never been let outside before now? 🙄
JayWantsACat 8 months ago
It's a museum, interactive experience. Not every painting is every museum is roped off, does that mean people should think they're allowed to touch it? Like come one.
NJ P 8 months ago
I am American and would say they are American because Americans today have no common sense, feel they are entitled and are just morons. People in Europe are so much more respectful. If the museum needed to cordone off the chair, then all the artwork needs to be protected. Would you art lovers all like that?
Carl Roberts 8 months ago (edited)
Ignorant to assume the culprits were American, as neither the video nor the museum give any indication whatsoever as to where they're from. But, then again, this is BP.
Bi.Felicia 8 months ago
I know and understand why many are assuming that these tourists are American, given their behavior, but I don't think they are. Going by how they are dressed, as well as movements/mannerisms, I think they're from Europe. Possibly German?
sofacushionfort 8 months ago
Man-purses like that aren’t common among American men
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Spittnimage 8 months ago
I get so angry when I see an id!ot do something like that. The chair should've been enclosed in acrylic to prevent that. Can't trust adults to act like adults nowadays.
Virgil Blue 8 months ago
Maybe those tourists should be encased in acrylic and displayed next to it. Add a card saying The stilled vandals or something.
Load More Replies...
BrunoVI 8 months ago
On the other hand, Marcel Duchamps became the most influential of all 20th-century artists by labelling a urinal as art. Find a good explanation of "Dadaism" to let your blood boil. One Dadaist's art was a banana peel (supposedly worth millions) that was thrown out by the night crew. Another one submitted a skull on a plinth (a small wooden piece to prop it up); the plinth was more celebrated than any of the the art in the museum... but it wasn't meant as art, only support for art.
Load More Replies...
Michael Schroeder 8 months ago
2 months and they haven't identified the culprit, makes me think it was done as a publicity stunt. Purposely dress two people to look like Americans and have them so something like this incident. It was either done by the artist to increase the artists public profile or done by the museum to increase museum ticket sales. Either way it probably done for publicity.
Gabby M 8 months ago
Ummm the artist has been D E A D for 135 years so yeah doubt it's him looking for publicity
Load More Replies... tameson 8 months ago
I don't understand all the comments saying it wasn't their fault because there was no gaurd present and it wasn't roped off. If it was an honest mistake than why did they wait until the security guard left before trying to sit on it? And, honestly, who in their right mind thinks that a crystal covered chair in a museum was meant to be sat on?
Petra Peitsch 8 months ago
Yeah, all those comments: "The chair must have been guarded ... must have been separeted by a cordon", are just insane, showing, how little common sense have some people nowadays. Kens and Karens .. and yes, I'm looking at your main country of origin!
Load More Replies... Brenda 8 months ago
Comments are funny, people saying not their fault. It needed protection. Maybe people need to have brains, and common sense and respect. Gets really tired that the entitled people have no respect for anything and " it's all about me and what I want, f*ck you and everything else"
Deborah B 8 months ago
They didn't accidentally sit on a chair thinking it was okay. They deliberately and knowingly sat on a sculpture of a chair, in order to take photos of themselves doing so, despite knowing it wasn't allowed. They assumed the chair would survive. When they broke it, they left instead of facing being asked to pay for the artwork they just destroyed.
Bec 8 months ago
Yes, I'm the videos and stills they getting pictures. I don't even think he 'sat down', he's just too fat and out of shape to be able to hover above it for the shot.
Load More Replies... Tabitha 8 months ago
I see something on the seat of the chair before the tourist sat down. Bet it was a notice to NOT sit on the chair. So there was a warning, if they’d opened their eyes and read it.
Annabelle 8 months ago (edited)
These are the same people who, when their kids break things at other people's homes, tell the homeowner they should have put things away. They then get retaliatory when they are no longer invited, and if there is any injury, you better believe they sue. They pretended to sit on the chair for the initial photo, KNOWING it was not to be sat on, before his dumb@ss put his full weight on a crystallized piece of art. Gtfo about signs and ropes.
Rick Murray 8 months ago
I'll give you signs and ropes. Big rope around that idiot's neck, and an even bigger sign that points to him and says "This is what happens when you come to our country and desecrate our art." 😉
Load More Replies... Tonyah Mcanelly 8 months ago
The comments that condone him. NO this is not ok its clearly an exhibit roped off or not alot of museums have open exhibits doesn't mean you can touch it people need to use common sense . This remind me of the Royal Guardsmen getting hackled and people touching the horses with signs that are clearly posted. its all fun and games until some one gets put in their place.
Jerome Lenovo 8 months ago
funny to see in the comments that people kinda know where the tourists are from and trying to poorly find excuses for the uneducated behavior of their fellow countrymen.
Rick Murray 8 months ago
Doesn't look like an "he was tired" to me. Look at her phone position, they were going to take photos sitting on it.
BrunoVI 8 months ago
I was going to comment based on the thumbnail photo that it's so unusual for "art" to be left in the open like that in the US or at least much of Europe that it's kind of on the museum to recognize that if you put out a chair, people will sit on it. "Ooh, go figure such a hoity toity museum would have such a fancy chair." But seeing the other pics, it's obvious the culprit was like, "hey Marge! Check this out! I'm sitting on the 'art'"
sofacushionfort 8 months ago
Take an object of pathos but high Art credibility (the chair from Van Gogh’s painting of his humble room) and cover it with sparklies (derivative of Damien Hirst). I wouldn’t waste time looking at it, much less sit on it.
JK 8 months ago
"It needs a rope/glass round it" - my dudes. It was *on a pedestal* literally on top of a square pedestal that raised it off the ground and made it difficult to sit in by accident. And the gallery themselves admit there *was* security in the room, but the couple waited until the moment the guard left. They *knew* it was an exhibit, they wouldn't have taken a pic with her leaned over and not touching it first. Or they'd have openly done it in front of the guard if they thought it wasn't an exhibit.
Ryan-James O'Driscoll 8 months ago
If you need a rope or a glass case to tell you to not sit on the art, you need a brain transplant.
Bored Birgit 8 months ago
The couple should speak up now at least to show their regrets. Bet someone recognizes them.
Raymond Core 8 months ago
It is people like this who are the reason we can't have nice things. I might have been lenient if they hadn't run away from what they did.
Laura Slade 8 months ago
A crystal chair on a pedestal and people think it's for sitting on? FFS
HardBoiledBlonde 8 months ago
It looks like the culprits are from the US. I will now hold my tongue for I too am from the US.
Serena Myers 8 months ago
"Two of the chair's legs were broken but the museum was able to restore them"
Janissary35680 8 months ago
I think one of the commenters got it right: "Feels like this was part of the art." This has the hallmarks of a performance art (AKA Candid Camera) setup. Private galleries are known to pull stunts like this.
SkippityBoppityBoo 8 months ago
I once did an art piece called "The R-Word Triptych". It was three chairs I painted white and each one was different to the other. They were exhibited at two art galleries here on separate occasions. The R-Word Triptych... It was an art piece I made in an art therapy group after I'd been r*ped at knife point. I'd found the chairs on the street by the big huge bins, carried them home... Repurposed them... They had Huge meaning to me. I was recovering... Those chairs represented a very deep, serious time of my life. I was getting better, I was going forward to my new life... As were the chairs... From being rescued from beside a bin to receiving an award for the art piece....... My god... If ANYONE had even DARED to sit on them? Art isn't always "roped off" and are you an actual Adult capable of actual thought? It's quite obviously an art piece and why are people bleating - "It should've been roped off"??? You're in an actual ART GALLERY! Have you never been let outside before now? 🙄
JayWantsACat 8 months ago
It's a museum, interactive experience. Not every painting is every museum is roped off, does that mean people should think they're allowed to touch it? Like come one.
NJ P 8 months ago
I am American and would say they are American because Americans today have no common sense, feel they are entitled and are just morons. People in Europe are so much more respectful. If the museum needed to cordone off the chair, then all the artwork needs to be protected. Would you art lovers all like that?
Carl Roberts 8 months ago (edited)
Ignorant to assume the culprits were American, as neither the video nor the museum give any indication whatsoever as to where they're from. But, then again, this is BP.
Bi.Felicia 8 months ago
I know and understand why many are assuming that these tourists are American, given their behavior, but I don't think they are. Going by how they are dressed, as well as movements/mannerisms, I think they're from Europe. Possibly German?
sofacushionfort 8 months ago
Man-purses like that aren’t common among American men
Load More Replies... Spittnimage 8 months ago
I get so angry when I see an id!ot do something like that. The chair should've been enclosed in acrylic to prevent that. Can't trust adults to act like adults nowadays.
Virgil Blue 8 months ago
Maybe those tourists should be encased in acrylic and displayed next to it. Add a card saying The stilled vandals or something.
Load More Replies... BrunoVI 8 months ago
On the other hand, Marcel Duchamps became the most influential of all 20th-century artists by labelling a urinal as art. Find a good explanation of "Dadaism" to let your blood boil. One Dadaist's art was a banana peel (supposedly worth millions) that was thrown out by the night crew. Another one submitted a skull on a plinth (a small wooden piece to prop it up); the plinth was more celebrated than any of the the art in the museum... but it wasn't meant as art, only support for art.
Load More Replies... Michael Schroeder 8 months ago
2 months and they haven't identified the culprit, makes me think it was done as a publicity stunt. Purposely dress two people to look like Americans and have them so something like this incident. It was either done by the artist to increase the artists public profile or done by the museum to increase museum ticket sales. Either way it probably done for publicity.
Gabby M 8 months ago
Ummm the artist has been D E A D for 135 years so yeah doubt it's him looking for publicity
Load More Replies... 
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