A Spanish tourist startled visitors to Florence’s Uffizi gallery on Saturday after stripping naked in front of one of the most famous artworks of the Renaissance.
Standing
in front of Sandro Botticelli’s alluring Birth of Venus, which
depicts the classical goddess of love and beauty emerging from the
sea and floating on a seashell, the 25-year-old man casually removed
all his clothes, La Repubblica reported. He then placed his hands in
the same position as the goddess – one on his chest and the other
on top of his thigh – before kneeling down and scattering rose
petals across the floor. Shocked gallery staff immediately
intervened, with one attempting to cover the man with a towel while
the other called the police.
One
tourist took the opportunity to capture the scene on her mobile
phone, with the photo then spreading quickly across Facebook and
other social networks. A commentator on Twitter posted the photo, and
said: "Art makes us nake. Sometimes, literally!
The
Spaniard is reported to have shouted “freedom, freedom!” as he
was taken away by police and later charged for an obscene act in
public. It is the second naked performance in a public place to have
struck Italy this month.
“I
was in the corridor of the gallery when I heard a guard saying he
needed help because there was a naked man in front of Venus,”
Susanna Mantovani, a tour guide, told La Repubblica. “I
thought it was a joke, then we walked into the room and saw him
kneeling down, sprinkling petals on the floor. I saw the police
talking to him, and the situation seemed peaceful.”
The
man was reportedly curious to know if his performance had been caught
on camera, asking police, “Is it true that people took photos with
their smartphones?” The Birth of Venus, painted between 1482 and
1485, is perceived as Botticelli's most famous piece of art. It was
commissioned by the Medici family of Florence.
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