- Vandalism Strikes Florence Landmark
- Search for German Tourists in Vandalism Case
- Calls for Stricter Penalties for Vandalism in Italy
It comes after a video of a tourist engraving his and his girlfriend’s initials into the Colosseum infuriated Italians earlier this summer and vandals spray-painted an arch on the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery in Milan.
The Italian police are searching for two German tourists after vandals sprayed a football slogan on a sixteenth-century landmark in Florence, the third incident of this nature this summer.
La Nazione reported seven enormous black letters and numerals on the Vasari Corridor’s external columns facing the Arno River. The graffiti is believed to refer to the German football team Munich 1860.
Wanted In Rome reports that police have identified two German tourists in their early 20s whom they desire to speak with about the incident, which detectives believe occurred at dawn on Wednesday.
Carabinieri Firenze, the city’s police force, has published a video of the men being sought on social media. While Tgr Rai Toscana has published a video of employees assessing the damage.
Both white men wore baseball caps and pants, one with a black top and the other a blue one.
They are observed traversing an arch together before reappearing from a greater distance and seemingly leaping between two pillars.
The elevated enclosed corridor joining the Palazzo Vecchio and the Palazzo Pitti was constructed in 1565.
There are calls for harsher punishments for vandals, with the director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, stating that comparable crimes in the United States can result in a five-year prison sentence.
He stated, “Clearly, this is not a drunken whim but rather a deliberate act.” Enough with the symbolic punishments and fanciful mitigating circumstances! We require the stern hand of the law.
“The current legislation must be implemented… If this is not sufficient, a stricter law must be enacted.”
A video of a tourist engraving his and his girlfriend’s initials into the Colosseum infuriated Italians earlier this summer. And vandals spray-painted an arch facing the Duomo Cathedral from atop the Vittorio Emanuele II Gallery in Milan.
Also the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, pledged to conduct a thorough investigation to determine who was responsible for the “reprehensible act of vandalism” at the Vasari Corridor.
The Italian cultural minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, said vandals “need to realise that even a small scratch will now be prosecuted.”
Giorgio Vasari designed the corridor, an elevated passageway, for Duke Cosimo de Medici so that grand dukes could travel safely from Pitti Palace to Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of government.
