Kazakh Tourist Arrested in Pompeii for Carving Name on 2,000-Year-Old Wall
A Kazakh tourist was caught red-handed on Saturday when he carved his name on the wall of the historic Casa dei Ceii at the archaeological site in Pompeii. The man was detained by security and reception staff as he wrote "ALI" in large letters on the wall.
In another act of vandalism against precious Italian heritage this weekend in Pompeii, an ancient Roman city destroyed around 2000 years ago by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the name "ALI" was carved into one of the ruins of the archaeological site's history.
Gabriel Zuchtrigel, director of the Pompeii Park, said the detainee would have to pay for the restoration of the wall, calling the act discourteous. He thanked the staff for the quick intervention that led to the detention of this tourist. The exact cost of the repair has not yet been determined.
"The Casa dei Ceii in Pompeii, excavated between 1913 and 1914, is a rare example of a late Samnite dwelling dating from the 2nd century BC. Its façade, decorated with white stucco and topped by a large portal with cubic capitals, perfectly illustrates the architecture of a bourgeois house of this period. The garden of this old villa has a rear wall that is impressively decorated with frescoes depicting wild animals. According to the electoral inscription found on the facade, the property belonged to the magistrate Lucius Cecundus.
Pompeii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations, attracting more than 2.5 million visitors each year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan commented on the incident with the detention of a Kazakh citizen in Italy for damaging an architectural monument in Pompeii, a Kazinform correspondent reports.
"In Italy, our citizen was detained for illegally writing an inscription on a historic building. After completing all the necessary formalities with law enforcement agencies, he was released," the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said.
As The Gaze previously reported, last week, an act of vandalism was committed at the 5,000-year-old Stonehenge, where so-called "eco-activists" doused the iconic monument with orange paint on the eve of the Summer Solstice.