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Security cameras at Verona’s Palazzo Maffei caught a male tourist ignoring signs and sitting on Italian artist Nicola Bolla’s fragile “Van Gogh” chair, a sculptural seat coated in thousands of Swarovski crystals.
The chair collapsed under his weight, sending shards across the gallery floor.
The man and a woman who had been posing nearby quickly fled before guards returned. Museum leaders called the act “superficial and disrespectful,” noting the pair waited for staff to step away before testing the seat.
Conservators have since restored the artwork, but police are still trying to identify the couple and decide on charges.