Photo-Seeking Tourist Tears Huge Hole in Priceless Painting in Italian Museum

A tourist wrecked a priceless oil painting when he leaned in for a photo beside it, fell, and tore a huge hole in the canvas.

The male tourist was visiting the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy with his girlfriend on Saturday when he tore a hole in the bottom corner of an irreplaceable ­portrait of Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany, painted in 1712, by Anton Domenico Gabbiani.

The young Italian man asked his girlfriend to take a photo of him posing in front of a portrait of Grand Prince Ferdinando de Medici. according to a report by The Telegraph of London, he was trying to mimic the aristocrat’s posture in the photo.

However, while trying to match the pose of the prince in the portrait, the man stepped backward toward the painting, lost his balance, and tripped over a low barrier. As he tried to steady himself, he put his hand on the canvas, tearing it near the prince’s right boot.

A security camera recorded the incident, and Italian broadcaster TG1 shared the footage on X, showing the moment the canvas was damaged.

Museum staff quickly identified the visitor and reported him to the police. He is now facing criminal charges and may be required to cover the cost of repairs.

Selfie-Taking Tourists are Causing ‘Untold Damage’ to Art

The director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has vowed to take stricter measures on selfie-taking after the 18th-century painting was damaged by the man this weekend.

“The problem of visitors coming to museums to make memes or take selfies for social media is now rampant: we will set very precise limits, preventing behavior that is not compatible with the sense of our institutions and respect for cultural heritage,” the gallery’s director Simone Verde says.”The tourist, who was immediately identified, will be prosecuted.”

It’s the second time this month that tourists in Italy have damaged artwork. Just a week ago, CCTV footage captured a man sitting and squashing a “Van Gogh” chair in a Verona museum, causing significant damage.

And earlier this year, a 47-year-old American man was brutally impaled on a spiked metal fence at the Colosseum in Rome while scaling the barrier in an attempt to get a photo.

Photo-seekers and selfie-hunters have previously been blamed for causing “untold damage” to priceless art in galleries across the world. Last year, specialist insurer Hiscox said that 50 percent of its art underwriting has been attributed to accidental damage — a large percentage of that was caused by people taking photos.