An American tourist who couldn’t follow museum etiquette accidentally broke off the pinky finger of a 600-year-old statue at an Italian museum.
According to NBC News, the Italian media reported that a 55-year-old man from Missouri was visiting Florence’s Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and reached out to touch Giovanni d'Ambrogio’s Virgin Mary statue.
The U.K. Independent reports that the American had apologized, but he still faces a hefty fine. He’s also facing outrage from local Florentines. Timothy Verdun, the museum’s director, who also happens to be an American, also issued a statement, saying, “In a globalized world like ours, the fundamental rules for visiting a museum have been forgotten, that is, ‘Do not touch the works.”
Verdun did say that the finger was added to the piece at a later date, but that doesn’t excuse the man’s behavior since a restoration might not be a success and the cost is still unknown.
After initial reports, The Daily Mail confirmed that the tourist should have been even better with his hands since he was a surgeon. The man, now identified as Patrick Broderick, was also not from Minnesota, but actually from New Fairfield, Connecticut.
The Daily Mail reports that Broderick was trying to compare his hand with the statue’s.
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