A house in Pompeii stood unmarred for 2,000 years—though long covered after Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE—until a 37-year-old British tourist visited the ancient city this week. Employees at the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Italy saw him defacing the house and called police, CNN reports. They found five engravings made with a blunt object on a wall of the House of the Vestal Virgins, next to the entrance door that was frescoed red before the eruption. The man apologized, per the news agency ANSA, and explained that he carved Wednesday's date and his initials and his daughters' as a reminder of his family's visit.
The case has been sent to prosecutors, per Artnet. Fines and a five-year jail sentence are possible; Italy's parliament increased the penalties earlier this year. When a visitor from Kazakhstan did something similar to the House of the Ceii in June, officials said he'd have to pay for restoration. Officials declined to comment on the actions of the British tourist, whose name was not released. But after the vandalism in June, Italy's culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano called it "an uncivilized and idiotic disgrace." Excavation on the site began in the 1700s. (More Pompeii stories.)
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