Italy: Outrage after famous statue dressed in thong and feather boa
A feud has erupted in Italy, after a 2500-year old statue was dressed in a leopard skin thong for a photo shoot.
The two Riace Bronzes statues – which were cast in Bronze in about 460 BC – show fully-nude Greek warriors, and are prized in the country after their fluke rediscovery 40 years ago, having been lost at sea.
The Reggio Calabria National Archaeological Museum, which houses both statues, accidentally permitted a photographer to take a photo of one of them in a feather boa and thong.
Gerald Bruneau had been given permission to take pictures of the statue, but some members of the local community were shocked by their attire in the snaps.
The pictures he took have now been published on Italian site Dagospia.
Simonetta Bonomi, who commissioned the photographer, said: “He showed me a shot of the statue with white tulle behind and it was very nice.
“Then, unbeknownst to me, he took the other images, which are terrible.
“When the stewards noticed, they intervened and stopped him, but obviously he had already managed to take some shots.”
Earlier this year, an art installation representing friendship had to be moved from a Michigan town, because residents thought it was meant to be a gay orgy.
Local pastor Rick Strawcutter said the sculpture was a perversion and an abomination, and a sign that the town was being left to Sodom.
