All That For A Selfie?
While the damage we’re talking about today isn’t necessarily done on purpose, I’m still including it in the vandalism category since it’s stupid and 100% preventable.
Cremona, Italy
In May, 2014, two tourists in the Northern Italian city of Cremona were in the city centre at La Loggia dei Militi. Under the portico of this building stands an 18th century sculpture titled Statue of the Two Herculeses which features two life sized sculptures of Hercules holding up the city’s emblem with a crown on top of it. Before the 1960s, this sculpture sat atop one of the gates to the city and was considered a symbol of Cremona, which, legend says, was founded by Hercules himself.
The tourists saw this incredible sculpture and decided that they absolutely had to get a selfie with it. Instead of standing in front of it like normal people they climbed right up and took their photo, in the process causing part of the crown to fall and smash on the ground. This happened on a Friday and by Sunday the Italian police had identified the perpetrators but I wasn’t able to find out what happened to them or if they were punished at all.
Milan, Italy
What is it about 2014 in Italy?? Anyways, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan a young man was so desperate for the perfect selfie with Drunken Stayr sculpture that he climbed on top of it and broke off its left leg in the process. Thankfully, this wasn’t the original ancient Greek sculpture but a 19th century reproduction but still, you can’t be climbing on things like that. The man was presumed to be a foreign student (I guess because everyone assumes Italian students know better) but they were unable to access security camera footage to definitively ID the selfie-taker so I don’t think he has faced any repercussions and the Academy director is treating the whole incident as an accident. Pretty lucky break. (Get it??)
Lisbon, Portugal
In 2016, at the entrance to the Rossio Railway station in Lisbon a 24-year-old man (why do men?) saw the lifesized statue of 16th century Portuguese king Dom Sebastião and got an idea. He wanted to take a photo with the statue and decided that being on the ground wouldn’t be good enough so he started scaling the train station to reach the niche where the statue stands, flanked by two arches on the beautiful intricately carved facade. Once the man reached the niche and climbed onto the pedestal to take his selfie the statue toppled to the ground and smashed.
The man immediately tried to make a break for it but police were able to catch him and once they assess the cost of either repairing (which may not even be possible) or replacing the statue, the man could have to face a judge in Portugal.
Washington, DC
Less than a week into the opening of an installation of Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama at the Hishhorn Museum someone fell into a patch of the beautiful, glass pumpkins in pursuit of the perfect selfie in the mirrored room, breaking one in the process. The work, titled Infinity Mirrored Room - All the Eternal Love I Have For Pumpkins is a completely mirrored room where visitors in small groups can enter for 30 seconds, enjoying and taking photos if they’d like. In this case, after the damage the room had to be closed temporarily while the damage was assessed and in the end, Kusama arranged for a replacement pumpkin to be delivered. When the room reopened there was increased security presence which there shouldn’t need to be.
I’m sure there are tons and tons of other stories just like these that have happened over the past number of years since selfies and social media have been a thing. Just remember that potential damage to a priceless work of art isn’t worth the few likes the photo may get from your followers.
Works Cited
Steinhauer, Jillian. “Man Breaks Statue in Quest for Selfie”. Hyperallergic. 2014. https://hyperallergic.com/115340/man-breaks-statue-in-quest-for-selfie/
Sutton, Benjamin. “Selfie Snappers Smash Baroque Sculpture in Herculean Feat of Stupidity”. Hyperallergic. 2015. https://hyperallergic.com/204167/selfie-snappers-smash-baroque-sculpture-in-herculean-feat-of-stupidity/
Voon, Claire. “Museumgoer Breaks a Kusama Pumpkin, Allegedly in Pursuit of a Selfie”. Hyperallergic. 2017. https://hyperallergic.com/361452/museumgoer-breaks-a-kusama-pumpkin-allegedly-in-pursuit-of-a-selfie/
Voon, Claire. “In Quest for Selfie, Tourist Scales and Smashes 126-Year-Old Statue”. Hyperallergic. 2016. https://hyperallergic.com/297531/in-quest-for-selfie-tourist-scales-and-smashes-126-year-old-statue/