US tourist smashes Roman-era statues at Israel Museum, arrested

A tourist, who had travelled from the United States, was arrested by police for allegedly smashing statues inside the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The statues seemed to have offended the man’s religious sensibilities.

As per the police statement, on Thursday evening the officers were called to the site after the visitor intentionally smashed and extensively damaged various sculptures in the museum.

The authorities released the photos in which two sculptures, which were knocked off of pedestals by the visitor, were seen broken into several pieces in the archaeology wing of the museum.

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The broken pieces were the head of Athena from the 2nd century CE discovered in 1978 in Tel Naharon near Beit She’an, and a statue of a griffin, which held the wheel of fate and represented the Roman god, Nemesis. The statue of a griffin was discovered in the northern Negev in 1957 and dated to 210-211 CE.

The Israel Museum stated that only two destroyed artefacts were “ancient Roman statues dating to the 2nd century CE” were featured in the archaeology wing.

Man believed sculpture was “against the Torah”

Police stated that the 40-year-old man was detained by a museum security guard before police reached the place and arrested him.

The museum also gave the police a photo of the stick they claimed was being carried around the museum by the wandering and may have been used to vandalise the sculptures.

The police questioned the suspect and they plan to request the judge to deny bail to the man.

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The initial assessment of the police officers is that the statues were destroyed by the man because he believed they were “against the Torah,” as per the police statement.

The damaged sculptures were sent to the conservation lab of the museum for professional restoration, it stated. The museum called the incident as “severe” and “worrying”, stating that it will not impact its opening hours and operations.

The museum did not clarify if the statues on display were copies or original artefacts. Sukkot is a popular time when tourists visit Israel in huge numbers, with many travelling from North America in particular.

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