The Canova Gipsoteca Museum of Possagno communicates:
On Friday 31 July an Austrian tourist sat on the sculpture of Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victorious preserved in the Gypsotheca, breaking three toes on his right foot and then hastily leaving the Museum, without reporting the fact.
A few minutes later the room guards detected the damage and raised the alarm. The emergency situation was immediately declared: after the investigations carried out by the Carabinieri of the Pieve del Grappa station, who were provided with all the information in their possession, in addition to the footage from the internal video surveillance circuit, the Museum staff worked together with the Superintendence and the Restorer to make the work and the fragments found safe.
On August 4, the tourist effectively “surrendered” himself and wrote a letter to the President of the Canova Foundation Vittorio Sgarbi and to the Museum, of which we report the main parts:
“I would like to self-report, after today I read about the accident in the Austrian newspapers and it was immediately clear to me that I had to get in touch. I remain at your complete disposal, it was irresponsible behavior on my part, the consequences were not known to me, therefore I continued the visit to the museum and the entire stay in Italy as normal (I did not flee).”
The tourist, who resides in Aistersheim, continues: “During the visit I sat on the statue, without realizing the damage I evidently caused. I ask you for information on the steps that are necessary on my part in this situation which is very unpleasant for me and for which, first of all, I apologize in every way.”
The President of the Canova Foundation Vittorio Sgarbi comments: “I appreciate the civic sense of these citizens and I take note of his words of embarrassment for what happened”.
The Director of the Museum Moira Mascotto comments: “ The hope today is that there will be the possibility of intervening on the work to repair the damage caused and be able to return to enjoying its full beauty as soon as possible. ”
Paolina Borghese as the victorious Venus
Sculpted from a single block of pure Carrara marble, the statue of Paolina Bonaparte as Venus victor emerges in the center of room 1 of the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
Antonio Canova had begun to work on the work as early as 1804, commissioned by Prince Camillo Borghese.
Initially, her husband placed her in Palazzo Chablais in Turin and chose a purely private destination for her.
It was the year of the coronation of her brother, Napoleon Bonaparte, as emperor. The sculpture of her sister would become one of the main symbols of the political rise of the Napoleonids in Europe.
Some preparatory drawings testify that the artist had studied the subject and its possible compositions for a long time. Four of these are preserved in the Museum Library Archive of Bassano del Grappa.
The woman, at her personal request, was represented in the pose and attitude usually dedicated to Venus, the Greek goddess of Beauty.
As the famous myth tells, through a sort of competition, Paris chose the most beautiful of the goddesses, rewarding her with a golden apple, the same one that Pauline holds in her left hand.
Furthermore, the body and its very pose reflect some ancient compositional models, especially from the Augustan period. The woman, in fact, is languidly lying on an agrippina, that is, an elongated armchair equipped with a single armrest, on which she rests her right arm.
The bust is erect and completely naked, while the lower part is semi-covered by a light robe, which makes the woman modest and sensual at the same time and charges the statue with a strong eroticism.
In fact, the atmosphere of scandal that the hypothetical nude pose in the artist’s studio aroused at the time was curious. (…)
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The editorial team thanks Piero Incerti for the useful report
 – The tourist responsible for damaging the plaster model of Paolina Borghese has been identified){kind=link}