Man sits on Swarovski crystals-covered ‘Van Gogh’ chair for photo, breaks it; netizens say ‘so much ignorance’
A tourist in Italy damaged a delicate artwork, the 'Van Gogh chair,' by sitting on it for a photo. The museum managed to restore the piece after some days.
In an attempt to get a photograph, a tourist in Italy sat on a chair studded with thousands of Swarovski crystals, crushing the work of art into pieces.
According to a video shared by Palazzo Maffei museum on social media, the man sat on the delicate chair instead of lowering himself and pretending to sit for the photo, as the woman accompanying him did. He lost his balance and attempted to grip the wall with both hands to avoid falling as the chair crumbled.
The woman tried to help him, but in vain. The duo who waited for the security staff to leave to click a photograph immediately rushed out of the room after damaging the chair.
What did the museum say?
The clip was posted by the museum's social media handle as they urged tourists to remain careful.
The post read, “Every museum’s nightmare has become reality, even in Palazzo Maffei. Waiting for the surveillance officers to come out, some visitors took an “in effect” photo.”
The damaged artwork is called the ‘Van Gogh’ chair with very delicate work, covered entirely with hundreds of Swarovski crystals by Nicola Bolla.
The museum further informed that they able to to restore the artwork after a few days. “For days we did not know if it would have been possible to restore it.But we made it,” Palazzo Maffei posted.
“A heartfelt thanks goes to the police, our security department and the restorers, whose precious work allowed the work to be recovered," it added.
Social media users react
Criticising the duo for carelessness and ignorance, several social users commented on the incident
One of the social media users wrote, “I hope that the perpetrators supported the compensation for the damage caused. Even teaching behavior not to be kept in a museum.”
Another added, “Well let's hope the culprits have been identified and held accountable.”
“So much ignorance, this is unacceptable!” one of the users commented.
Another one said, “I am really sorry ,this is unfortunately the evolution of idiotic and ignorant tourism ,the tourism of photos on social media .... not the tourism of Art and Culture.”