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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican tourist snaps off finger to 600-year-old Italian statue, says he was trying to measure it
BY NINA GOLGOWSKI
An American tourist has sparked outrage overseas not for giving the finger but for accidentally taking one from a 600-year-old Italian statue.
An unidentified tourist at Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo snapped off the pinky finger of a statue dating to the late 14th or early 15th century by medieval sculptor Giovanni D'Ambrogio, museum officials confirmed.
The tourist said to have been a 55-year-old man from Missouri, was reportedly trying to measure it when he violated museum decorum by putting his own hands on the marble art work titled, Annunciazione.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/tourist-snaps-600-year-old-statue-finger-article-1.1418763
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)TYY
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Or did you take it off to measure it?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)You're thinking he was a stone-mason-surgeon
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)kentauros
(29,414 posts)but I know the quote
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)That was funny.
MADem
(135,425 posts)CTyankee
(63,771 posts)What kind of idiot thinks it's OK to touch museum pieces, or even get close enough to "measure" it?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Them Italians got gobs of old statues.
I seen one just like that one at lots of garage sales.
malaise
(267,813 posts)Mess with him and he'll 'drone' you
Seriously that's the definition of the 'ugly American'.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)of paint "wasted" and basicially trying to chip a little off to prove her point. I was hoping she would get arrested, LOL. But the guard didn't see her finger actually scraping.
At the Met last weekend I could not stand the din of alarms going off as tourists kept trying to touch clothing in the exhibit. The guards couldn't keep up with it, and it gave me a headache. What can I say, everyone acts like they are at the mall or in their living room these days.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)He couldn't even keep his ear on.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)my aunt is a sociopath, and I was hoping it would catch up with her someday. No luck.
CTyankee
(63,771 posts)but art does make some people crazy, or crazier I should say. Plenty of unbalanced people have attacked great works of art...some guy went after the Pieta with a hammer and that's why it's behind plexiglass now...
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Albert Einstein and Vincent Van G. Wrong wrong wrong and wrong. I'm not kidding in the least when I say I hoped she got arrested, she gets away with everything. Little old ladies fool everybody!
William Seger
(10,742 posts)... where they have several sections and one of the control consoles of the Eniac, the first "general purpose" (programmable) electronic computer. It was a weekday afternoon, and no one else was around. The console was just sitting out where it could be touched, and I couldn't resist giving the Speed control (!) a turn. It came off in my hand! I put it back and quickly left.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)boston bean
(36,186 posts)dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)Here is their "exclusive":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385591/Patrick-Broderick-The-American-SURGEON-accidentally-snapped-finger-600-year-old-marble-statue-Florence-museum-youd-thought-hed-better-hands.html
I suppose it's wrong to assume that an educated person would have the good sense to NOT TOUCH THE ARTWORKS.
Why is it every time I go abroad there are always plenty of Americans acting badly and making the rest of us look like ignoramuses.
kentauros
(29,414 posts)Airlines need to make Rick Steves PBS shows the only available video entertainment on their media systems. Then, at least, some of these ignoramuses would be educated on how to act while visiting.
treestar
(82,383 posts)It would be like saying the French are snobs, or the like.
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)I'm not painting anyone with a broad brush, but if you spent anytime in a major museum, historic site etc the ones asking the most idiotic questions are American.
True story: I went to London a few years ago in the dead of winter, so there were no tourists around. So I went to Hampton Court and had the place all to myself. Anyway, I got a really great private tour, and when the tour concluded i asked him some very specific questions which startled him apparently; as he turned to me and and asked "you're Canadian, right"? After I told him I was from metro NY he said "wow, I'm really impressed. Americans NEVER ask any relevant questions or anything which answer doesn't confirm their 'we're #1 attitude they all seem to have".
A trip to Paris a few years ago--big loud Texans in the back of a double decker bus saying "we are real Americans, not like those liberal snobs".
Btw, I said "plenty" of Americans, not all.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)Also, you're calling me a liar. I don't appreciate that.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)Their accents? They told you? You asked them?
Or was it their "Kiss Me I'm From Texas" tank tops?
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)one week in Mexico, a few days in Canada, 3 weeks in Australia.
Never saw another American behave badly, behaved well myself.
People in those countries were very nice. One stopped and volunteered to take my photo in front of the Sydney Opera House (I was by myself). People in London stopped to help us when we were looking at maps.
People in Paris were very nice, which I had sort of not been expecting. We were there when Chimpy was still in office.
I heard an Israeli talking from the seat in front of me on a tour bus. He had been to the US as a tourist and he and his wife warmly praised America as very well prepared to welcome tourists.
The who Ugly American thing is a stereotype.
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)People that say that have never seen vacationers from other EU nations at the Costa del Sol acting like idiots.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)branford
(4,462 posts)HappyMe
(20,277 posts)I don't understand why this asshat thought that touching this 600 year old statue was a great fucking idea.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)be like it never happened
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)And if the superglue doesn't do it, then just put some duct tape on the back of it and turn the statue a little, so nobody will see it.
Although, when you think about it - a 600 year old statue is kind of dated anyway. They should get some newer stuff.
branford
(4,462 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)ananda
(28,783 posts).. it's Missouri.
liberal N proud
(60,302 posts)Read the article again, there is an update.
LeftinOH
(5,342 posts)stuff. Lean in close to the artworks and displays to experience them with your eyes (and with the EYES only).
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)CTyankee
(63,771 posts)some museums are stricter than others...at the Louvre, you practically have to take off your shoes like with airport security! With others, they allow pics but no flash and some no pics at all. Some don't like the magnifying glass because they fear it would magnify any light that could burn the canvas or panel...and if you get too close, many museums have sensors that will set off an alarm and that is a good way to get yourself thrown out of the building...
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)And thank goodness for that, because it can be tricky to find your way out on your own.
Although I usually just pull a fire alarm and follow the crowd.
CTyankee
(63,771 posts)the museum. They love to see people with open bottles/cans of liquid in their hands...
newfie11
(8,159 posts)pipi_k
(21,020 posts)a whole lot worse...
branford
(4,462 posts)HolyMoley
(240 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)I mean, who is concerned about the length of a finger? OTOH, a penis.......
demwing
(16,916 posts)Brewinblue
(392 posts)Would have made a great I Love Lucy episode during their trip to Europe.
Turbineguy
(37,212 posts)only had a gun....
Botany
(70,291 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)How many more ways will Americans think up to humiliate us?
actslikeacarrot
(464 posts)....don't touch anything. Also, shoegoo. That shit works on anything!
Javaman
(62,439 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)Even in this digital age, a finger for a finger. Just pull this Show-Me state bumpkin's pinky out of his nose and whack it off.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)Apparently it had already been repaired, so he broke off the repair finger.
But still, what is wrong with people that they think they have a right to touch anything they want? What an effing ahole american.
CTyankee
(63,771 posts)various remote places to keep the German army from finding it and taking it back to the Fuehrer!
In Bruges I saw the damage done to Michelangelo's Madonna when that sculpture was hauled off, first by Napoleon and then by the Germans. It's a wonder it was returned both times safe with only some minor scuffing and chipping.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,272 posts)GreatCaesarsGhost
(8,584 posts)CTyankee
(63,771 posts)Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)And I want you Yanks wearing maple leaves to stop it as you're diluting the brand.
RC
(25,592 posts)I what to know who the real Canadians are, so I know who to mingle with. Too many USA'ns think the rest of the world is the same as home. Speak louder if they don't understand you.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Bunnahabhain
(857 posts)struggle4progress
(118,039 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Tells you something right there.
CTyankee
(63,771 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)greytdemocrat
(3,299 posts)And will be easy to repair but this just screams dummy!!!
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Ugly American, Exhibit A.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Spirochete
(5,264 posts)or we'd probably be seeing this -
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Peru's most sacred site, Machu Picchu, has been damaged during a shoot for a beer commercial.
They've struck at our most sacred inheritance. This is an affront to our ancestors
Archaeologist Federico Kaufmann Doig
The Inca citadel, 2,400 metres (7,782 feet) high in the Andes, was being used in the ad for Cusquena beer by US publicity firm J Walter Thompson when a crane smashed into a centuries-old granite sun clock.
The Intihuatana, or "hitching post for the sun", an integral part of the spectacular site which is protected by the UN and is visited by thousands of tourists every year, now has a gash as long as a ball-point pen.
Criminal charges, which carry a two-to-four-year prison sentence have been filed against the production company.
Federico Kaufmann Doig, a prestigious Peruvian archaeologist, said: "Machu Picchu is the heart of our archaeological heritage and the Intihuatana is the heart of Machu Picchu.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)This is more manufactured outrage. They can just repair the statue and it will be like nothing happened.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)gorilla glue to the rescue!