A Romanian tourist was arrested on Tuesday at the Acropolis in Athens after allegedly trying to steal marble pieces from the ancient Greek monument.
The 36-year-old man was captured after another tourist noticed him placing his hands on a section of the Propylaea (the remains of the entrance gate to the Acropolis) in a way that seemed suspicious, according to Greek news outlet Proto Thema. .
When the police approached, the tourist claimed that he did not know that taking the stone pieces was illegal, adding that they had already broken the structure.
The alleged thief was charged with theft and will likely be prosecuted under Greece’s antiquities law, which stipulates that all ancient cultural objects and properties belong to the state.
According to Iefemerida, he will have to appear before local prosecutors on Wednesday as part of the standard procedure for such crimes.
The tourist was caught trying to take a piece of the Propylaea, the entrance gate to the Acropolis, by another touristAFP via Getty Images
Tourists have been causing problems at the ancient site this summer as tourists return en masse around the world following the end of the pandemic.
Hoping to preserve the ancient site, which receives up to 23,000 visitors a day, Greek officials have begun implementing measures to limit the number of tourists who can visit it, according to the New York Times.
First implemented in September, those measures included admitting people to the site in time slots from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Greece has begun implementing measures to limit the number of tourists who can visit the AcropolisNurPhoto via Getty Images
The incident at the Acropolis was far from the first time a tourist was caught defaming priceless monuments this summer.
Last week, a drunk Irish tourist smashed a lion statue in front of the Brussels Stock Exchange in Belgium while trying to climb on it.
The statue had just been renovated for three years and cost $150 million, and the damage caused by the tourist is expected to cost around $19,000.
In June, a man was caught carving his name and that of his girlfriend at the Colosseum in Rome.
Days earlier, in Florence, Italy, a tourist climbed the Fountain of Neptune to take a photo and broke a piece of the 16th-century statue.
Repairs to that damage are expected to cost more than $5,000.
In June, a smiling tourist kicked off the summer season by carving his and his girlfriend’s names on the wall of the Colosseum in Rome.
That man, Ivan Dimitrov, a 27-year-old Bulgarian fitness trainer living in England, later claimed he did not know how old the monument was.
“With deep shame, it was only after what unfortunately happened that I learned about the antiquity of the monument,” Dimitrov wrote in a letter of apology.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn