- Two Roman-era statues at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are reportedly damaged by an American visitor who has been detained in Israel. The statues were a part of the Archeology Wing’s ongoing exhibition and date to the second century C.E.
- Staff at the museum called the police, who are now in charge of the situation. The museum’s conservation lab has been used to relocate the damaged sculptures for expert repair.
- The administration of the museum considers this as an upsetting and rare occurrence and decries any types of violence.
- The statues were smashed into multiple pieces and had been knocked from their pedestals. One is a marble statue of the Greek goddess Athena that was found near Tel Naharon, northern Israel, in 1978.
- The other sculpture was found in the Negev desert in southern Israel in 1957 and shows a griffon grasping a wheel of destiny that represents the Roman deity, Nemesis.
- When the individual was interrogated by the police, it was discovered that he had destroyed the sculptures because he had religious convictions about them, considering them to be “idolatrous and contrary to the Torah.
- The 40-year-old’s attorney, Nick Kaufman, told the Associated Press that instead of acting out of religious fanaticism, the unnamed man was exhibiting symptoms of “Jerusalem syndrome,” a rare psychiatric condition that affects some visitors and pilgrims to the holy city, which is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
- The primary symptom of the illness, which is an acute psychotic state, appears to be the person feeling they are a biblical figure.
Source:
Newsweek