--- title: Student Takes Selfie And Breaks 19th Century Greek-Roman Statue description: Because who wouldn't want to Instagram a picture of themselves sitting in the lap of an ancient statue? canonical: https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/ author: Francesca Trianni article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-18T15:35:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:46.227Z og:title: Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie og:description: Because who wouldn't want to Instagram a picture of themselves sitting in the lap of an ancient statue? og:url: https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20507a7153bb6062/698685f413c79f6352191168/screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-10-33-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Student Takes Selfie And Breaks Italian Statue og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie twitter:description: Because who wouldn't want to Instagram a picture of themselves sitting in the lap of an ancient statue? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20507a7153bb6062/698685f413c79f6352191168/screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-10-33-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie  by [Francesca Trianni](https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Mar 18, 2014 3:35 PM UTC  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  by [Francesca Trianni](https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/)  ## Francesca Trianni Mar 18, 2014 3:35 PM UTC There are a few basic rules in museums. The first: don’t touch the art. The second: don’t take selfies while touching the art. At a museum in Milan, Italy, a student [reportedly](http://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/14%5Fmarzo%5F18/brera-studente-si-fa-selfie-statua-ne-spacca-gamba-26669b36-ae7c-11e3-a415-108350ae7b5e.shtml) broke that second rule: he climbed on a statue dating back to the early 19th century to take a selfie and caused the statue’s left leg to fall off. The discovery was made on Tuesday morning by the staff of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, one of Italy’s most renowned academic institutions, and it was apparently also recorded by security cameras. The statue depicts the “Drunken Satyr,” an ancient Greek sculpture of the Hellenistic era showing a human-like figure with animal features drunkenly sleeping. Fortunately, the statue is a copy located in the academy’s hallway leading to a room full of more valuable works of the most famous sculptors of the era, including Antonio Canova, Italian newspapers reported. Unfortunately we don’t know whether the student, whose name has not been reported, was actually able to snap the ambitious photo before the amputation occurred.  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera  Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/"},"headline":"Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie","datePublished":"2014-03-18T15:35:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:46.227Z","description":"Because who wouldn't want to Instagram a picture of themselves sitting in the lap of an ancient statue?","url":"https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Art","Italy","photography","selfie","Museum"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20507a7153bb6062/698685f413c79f6352191168/screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-10-33-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Francesca Trianni","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/francesca-trianni/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt20507a7153bb6062/698685f413c79f6352191168/screen-shot-2014-03-18-at-10-33-12-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Student Takes Selfie And Breaks Italian Statue","caption":"A student in Italy broke a 19th century statue while taking a selfie","creditText":"Nicola Vaglia - Corriere della Sera","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/28679/student-breaks-statue-selfie/","name":"Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie"}}]}] ```