The art of lewdness.
A female tourist in Florence, Italy, was caught on camera mimicking sex acts on an ancient statue, sparking calls for her to be banned from the city.
The unidentified woman dressed in denim shorts and a black top was spotted kissing and gyrating against a life-size statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and excess, according to photos shared this week on the @welcome_to_florence Instagram account.
@welcome_to_florence/Instagram
The undated photos quickly sparked outrage, with hundreds of commenters decrying the woman’s apparent disrespect for the city’s cultural heritage.
“My goodness the level of idiocy,” one disappointed observer wrote.
“The degradation of this city is abnormal,” a second lamented.
“If I sat on the lap of the Lincoln Memorial [in Washington, DC] they would give me the electric chair,” another scoffed.
Patrizia Asproni, president of the Confcultura heritage association, called for a “Singapore model,” or “tight checks, sky-high fines and zero tolerance” for poorly behaved visitors, the BBC reported.
The “repeated shows of rudeness and barbarity” are “because everyone feels entitled to do whatever they want with impunity,” Asproni said.
If the woman is identified, she could face fines and even a lifetime ban from the city as punishment, the Evening Standard suggested.
The debased statue in question stands on a street corner near the Ponte Vecchio. It is a copy of the 16th-century work by the sculptor Giambologna, and the original is kept in the nearby Bargello museum, the BBC noted.
“Tourists are welcome here but they need to respect our artworks, be they originals or replicas,” said Antonella Rinaldi, Florence’s archaeology and fine arts superintendent.
“Although I doubt this lady — whom I condemn — even knows the difference,” she added.
Florence is hardly the only Italian city struggling to keep raucous tourists in check.
In June, a Kazakh tourist was detained for carving his name into a wall in the ancient city of Pompeii.
The man was eventually released from custody, but will have to pay for the restoration of the wall.
“Unfortunately, even today, we find ourselves commenting on an uncivilized and idiotic disgrace caused to our artistic and cultural heritage,” Italy’s minister of culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said of the incident.
