A tourist damaged a famous 200-year-old Italian sculpture after sitting on it for a photo

An Austrian tourist broke the toes of a famous sculpture that dates back to 1804 at Italy’s Museo Antonio Canova on Friday, according to a Facebook post shared by the museum.

Multiple reports, including one from Artnet News, say the tourist was attempting to take a selfie while sitting on Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova’s plaster “Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix” at the museum in Possagno, just over an hour outside of Venice, when the mishap occurred.

The museum and police said the man was an Austrian man who was part of a group of tourists visiting the museum.

However, a report from Italian news agency Adnkronos says that the visitor realized he had broken the sculpture after “lying next to the precious work, being photographed by another person,” according to a translation from Italian.

Reuters has since shared footage that shows the tourist sitting on the sculpture, while someone else appears to be taking his photo.

The museum’s Facebook post said an Austrian tourist was responsible for breaking two toes of the sculpture. Adnkronos and Reuters, however, say the sculpture lost three toes.

The museum’s Facebook post added that the visitor left the scene and didn’t notify the museum of the breakage.

“A few minutes later our room guards detected the damage and raised the alarm,” the museum’s statement, translated from Italian, said. “An emergency situation was immediately declared.”

The museum said on Facebook that the fragments of the broken sculpture were found and that the cast can be restored. The museum said it is discussing the artwork’s future restoration in the coming weeks.

The police later verified that three toes of the famous sculpture were severely damaged. According to the Italian police, the man was a part of a group of eight Austrian tourists.