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| Many of Pompeii's ruins have floor mosaics (file pic)Getty Images |
Here's the story:
Italian police have detained a British woman suspected of removing some small Roman tiles from a mosaic at Pompeii.
BBC NEWS 4-8-19
Italian media say she was spotted cutting tiles - called tesserae - from a floor mosaic in the world-famous site's House of the Anchor. She was with her father and sister at the time.
The damage was estimated at €3,000 (£2,600) by the site's manager.
Nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, killing many Pompeii residents and entombing a thriving city.
The 20-year-old woman had crossed a guard rail around the mosaic, police said. Last year police arrested two French tourists found stealing pieces of marble and earthenware at Pompeii, Italy's Il Giornale daily reports. And in 2016 an American took a piece of marble off the floor of the House of the Small Fountain, the paper said.
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A RECURRING PROBLEM- AND A CURSE?
from May 2017, the "Local" in Italy wrote about this on-going problem, and a "curse"!
Visitors taking ancient relics as 'holiday souvenirs' or even to sell at a profit is a recurring problem at Italy's cultural sites, and at Pompeii alone, guards have caught several tourists trying to smuggle out relics including mosaic tiles and parts of statues over the years. One tour guide previously told The Local the site is too easy to steal from due to too few custodians guarding the valuables.
Sometimes however, the thieves try to make amends. In 2014, a Canadian tourist returned an artefact she had stolen from Pompeii's amphitheatre during her honeymoon - 50 years earlier.
And several thieves have sent back the loot claiming the relics are 'cursed'. Pompeii's archaeological superintendent said in 2015 that he was considering setting up an exhibition of the returned artefacts and accompanying letters, to tell the story behind the stolen pieces.
