A tourist lay down for a selfie in an Italian museum and broke the fingers of a 200-year-old sculpture

A 50-year-old Austrian tourist, posing against the background of a plaster model of the sculpture "Polina Borghese in the form of Venus" (Venus the Winner) in the Antonio Canova Gypsum Library, damaged a 200-year-old work of art.

The famous sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte in the image of Venus the Winner suffered damage for the second time during its existence. The plaster work lost its head during the bombing in 1917, and was restored only by 2004. Now Venus found herself without two toes because of an Austrian tourist who sat down on her to get a memorable photo.

The man did not report the incident to the staff and left the building. The guards, who noticed the breakdown, raised the alarm. After viewing the surveillance camera footage, the man was identified. His wife acted as a photographer.

As noted on the website of the Canova Museum in Possagno, in the homeland of the popular Italian, the museum contains plaster models of sculptures discovered in the sculptor's workshop after his death. The marble sculpture of Pauline Bonaparte brought him the greatest popularity. A sculpture depicting Pauline Bonaparte in the guise of the victorious Venus is in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

The identity of the tourist has not been made public. He himself apologized by writing an email to the president of the Canova Foundation, Vittoori Sgabri.

Pauline Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon I, who entered into her second marriage with the Roman Prince Camillo Borghese in 1803, posed for the "Venus Victorious". It was in order to celebrate this marriage that Borghese commissioned Antonio Canova in 1804 to make a sculpture of his wife in the form of Venus. When Polina started posing for the sculptor, she was 25 years old.

Princess Pauline, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte

At first, Canova was instructed to portray Pauline Bonaparte in clothes like the goddess Diana, but she insisted on posing nude. Her desire, and the sculpture itself, later exhibited in the Borghese Palace, caused scandals, which Polina sincerely enjoyed and which she heated up by telling details about posing.