In Verona, Italy, the Palazzo Maffei shared a security video on Facebook showing two visitors interacting with the museum’s art. The footage captured a woman standing above a crystal chair while a man took her photo.
Next, the man decided to have his picture taken. He approached the chair, initially attempting to stand above it. Then, unexpectedly, he opted to sit on the fragile chair. This decision led to a mishap as he lost his balance, tumbled backward, collided with the chair, and tried to regain stability by grabbing onto the wall.
The man’s loss of balance was clearly too much for the fragile crystal chair, which collapsed completely and crumbled to the ground upon impact.
‘Idiot’ tourist sits on and shatters ‘Van Gogh’ chair adorned with thousands of Swarovski crystals pic.twitter.com/oWCqfOZopv
— New York Post (@nypost) June 13, 2025
The female tourist assisted the man in getting up and out of his predicament. And the two then walked out of the room like nothing had happened.
The museum’s social media post described the incident as follows: “They waited for the staff to exit the room to take a memorable photo… and then left, seemingly unconcerned about the consequences.”
The Post reported in its story linked above that the museum called the tourist’s actions “superficial” and “disrespectful.”
“They ignored every rule of respect for art and cultural heritage,” the museum added.
It read that:
But this story has a happy ending — a few days after the horrific accident, the museum was breathing a sigh of relief. It had been able to restore the art piece to its original splendor.
A staffer said in Italian on the Facebook post that, “For days we didn’t know if it would be possible to restore it. But we did it.”Â
“A heartfelt thanks goes to the police, our security department and the restorers, whose precious work allowed the work to be recovered,” the staffer added.
In comments connected to the Palazzo Maffei’s posting, people reacted to the video and made it clear what these two did was unforgivable.
“Idiots! I hope they are reported!” Davide Baraldi wrote.
Another added, “The embodiment of mediocrity, rudeness and ignorance.”
It definitely reminded me of the People article a few months back about a group of tourists from New Zealand who decided to take an illegal dip in a historic landmark, Rome’s Trevi Fountain.
It read that:
The Rome Capital Police did not immediately respond to PEOPLE for comment, but a spokesperson for the police department told CNN, “Alcohol was definitely involved.”Â
The double-dipper was fined 500 euros (around $540) and received a lifetime ban from visiting the fountain.
I mean, who does this? There are rules of etiquette everyone should know.
America is an exceptional country. Join us as we continue to fight to Make America Great Again.
