Rome’s famous Colosseum has once again been defaced by foreign tourists. A crime punishable by imprisonment for up to five years.
Hard time for the Colosseum. Two new tourists have been caught defacing the walls of Rome’s most famous monument, shortly after a similar case caused a scandal in Italy.
On Friday, a cultural property complaint was filed against a 17-year-old Swiss girl who was on holiday with her family after she was filmed carving her initial (“N”) in the amphitheater, the Italian press reported ANSA. It is a travel guide that has immortalized the scene and shared it widely on social networks.
The next day, a 17-year-old German student was arrested by the Italian Carabinieri for having defaced the monument himself. He was “administratively sanctioned,” says the agency Ansa, without naming the amount of the sanction.
15,000 euros fine
Both of these incidents came shortly after another scandal involving the defacing of Roman heritage. At the end of June, Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old Bulgarian sports coach living in the UK, had outraged Italy by engraving his name and that of his companion on the Coliseum.
In the sights of justice, he asked for “pardon” and argued that he “didn’t know it was an ancient monument.” According to Ansa, the Rome public prosecutor could soon take action against him.
The Italian penal code provides for a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of 15,000 euros for degrading “cultural property”.