10 Things To Avoid While Traveling as an American: Number 6, Cultural Property Theft
Sometimes when you create a series of blog posts, you often
wait patiently for a sign or something to inspire your next post. Today my sign
was delivered on a giant shiny silver platter by Italian airport authorities
and antiquities police.
Hence I present the next post in our blog series on 10 Things to Avoid While Traveling as an American Part 6: INVALUABLE CULTURAL PROPERTY THEFT
Today a news story broke out that two American tourists were
stopped at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport attempting to smuggle 30kg worth of ruins
from Pompeii. First of all, shame on the Italian authorities for not noticing
two Americans hacking away at a wall or somehow stashing off invaluable
treasures. We’ll blame it on a siesta break.
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| Photo: Il Mattino. Source: http://www.thelocal.it/20140916/american-tourists-caught-with-pompeii-relic |
Second of all, I simply don’t know where to start. Obviously this
circumstance is an extreme example, but are some Americans so ignorant to think
that the local tourist shop happens to sell authentic relics that they go
collect themselves? Or, were they so dissatisfied by said chintzy tourist goods
of exploding volcanoes over colossal ancient cities that they just decided to
help themselves to the local ruins. Well, ‘no one has put them back together,
so they must not care about them’, they probably thought as they shoved CHUNKS
of Pompeii’s ruinous buildings into their luggage and then sped off for the
airport thinking how they would proudly present their new gifts back in the US
saying, ‘Here Grannie, we brought you something for the front porch.’
These folks are in BIG trouble, allegedly facing charges of
appropriation of state heritage. It is likely these Americans are not just
ignorant criminals, but rather they are antiquities dealers hoping to casually
slide past authorities. Nevertheless,
destruction of cultural property and particularly theft are certainly things to
avoid while traveling abroad.
Now, I understand that America doesn’t really have such old and
interesting stuff and we feel a bit jealous of other places. But that’s simply not true.
We have the Leaning Tower of Niles in Illinois....
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| Source: Wikipedia |
The Eiffel Tower in Paris, Texas, equipped with its own cowboy hat....
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| Source: Wikimedia |
And we can never forget that we have Foamhenge in Natural Bridge,
VA.
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| Source: Invisiblegalaxy.net |
Yet somehow, despite these modern marvels of historic landmarks, Americans
have proven that they just don’t know how to react to older heritage sites
abroad.
For example, don’t shake hands with a 14th century
Renaissance statue in Florence and break off its finger like this guy. And let’s
not forget the time that the cast of Jersey Shore was sent to Florence and were
promptly kicked out by authorities because they were simply unable to enculture
themselves in the historic city’s atmosphere. In fact, smuggling and vandalizing seems to happen a lot.
So what is the moral of the story? In general, blend in. Don’t touch
things that say ‘don’t touch’, unless they somehow seem diabolically enticing like this...
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| Source: Meemes.com |
And if
you see ruins lying on the ground in one of the most famous archaeological
ruinous sites in the world, please do not shove them in your bag and think they’ll
make it in your carry on next to your 3 oz. shampoo bottle and lonely planet travel
guide. Take home one of those exploding volcano souvenirs instead!
