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Student Breaks 19th Century Greco-Roman Statue While Taking a Selfie

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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 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

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Write to Francesca Trianni at francesca.trianni@time.com