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Tourists break priceless statue for ‘selfie’

Two tourists in Cremona, northern Italy, are in hot water with police after breaking off a piece of the city’s priceless statue of Hercules while trying to take a selfie.

Published: 4 May 2015 10:48 CEST
Tourists break priceless statue for 'selfie'
The statue is located under the portico of the Loggia dei Militi in Cremona. Photo: David Nicholls/Flickr

The tourists had been climbing the 'Statue of the two Hercules' on Friday night when they involuntarily broke off a piece of the marble crown that sits on top of the monument, the Milan edition of Corriere della Sera reported.

By Sunday police had identified the two perpetrators. On Monday, technicians will assess the damages to the statue. 

Situated under the portico of the 13th century Loggia dei Militi, the monument depicts two statues of Hercules holding a large shield. It is considered to be a symbol of Cremona itself, which is said to be founded by the mythological hero.

Completed in 1700, the statue was originally placed on top of the city gates before being moved to its current location in 1962.

This isn’t the first time Italy’s monuments have fallen victim to careless tourists.

In February Dutch football fans damaged one of Rome’s most treasured fountains, the Fontana della Barcaccia, at the foot of the Spanish steps, during rioting ahead of a Europa League match against AS Roma. The damage was estimated at €5 million.

In 2013, an American tourist accidentally snapped a finger off a 600-year-old statue in Florence’s Galleria dell’Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore. 

SEE ALSO: Ten stupid things tourists have done in Italy

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CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Published: 8 April 2024 17:05 CEST
Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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