A young woman was filmed kissing, humping and grinding against a statue of Bacchus, the god of wine and sensuality, in Florence Italy last weekend.
The country’s culture ministry and officials in Florence have expressed anger over the incident after pictures went viral on social media, with the Florence mayor’s office calling it an act that “mimicked sex.”
Florence City Hall said the tourist had not been identified yet and suggested that she was “presumably in a state of inebriation.”
They said that if identified, she would be fined and could be banned from the city for life, in line with a law that prohibits any sort of abuse of cultural heritage in the country.
The statue is a replica of the original created in the 16th century by sculptor Giambologna, who was influenced by Hellenistic sculpture and the works of Michelangelo and who settled in Florence in 1552.
His original Bacchus is kept in the Bargello Museum in the centre of Florence. The replica stands on a street corner near the Ponte Vecchio bridge.
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