The clumsy tourist has now been named by international media as Patrick Broderick.

Broderick is alleged to have accidentally snapped the finger off the right hand of a statue by 14th- and 15th-century sculptor Giovanni d’Ambrogio during a visit to the Galleria dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.

Despite being listed as a specialist in emergency medicine at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, he was unable to save the stone woman's digit. 

The task has instead been left to the experts, although the museum's director told Firenze Today it would be a challenge as the fragile fingers were not made at the same time as the statue.

This is not the first time one of Florence's many prized statues has lost a finger.

In 2009, a statue in the city's Loggia dei Lanzi, in the famous Piazza della Signoria, lost a finger overnight.

It was unknown whether the damage was accidental or the work of vandals, La Nazione reported at the time.

The sculpture was made by 19th-century sculptor Pio Fedi, the newspaper said.

The Loggia dei Lanzi is packed with tourists during high season and watched over by guards, as is the Galleria dell'Opera.