A visitor from Brazil has damaged a statue of St. Gabriel as he tried to photograph the C18th masterpiece in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon late on Sunday morning.
The treasured statue in gilded wood sat on a pedestal and had a protective barrier but this did not deter the visitor on 'free entry day' who managed to dislodge St Gabriel’s likeness, sending it crashing to the floor.
The deputy director of the museum, José Alberto Seabra Carvalho confirmed the piece is from the second half of the eighteenth century and that the restorers now will have to assess the damage done,
“It was a very unfortunate incident, but it was not a deliberate act or vandalism. It is necessary to assess whether the damage was actually broken as it consists of several independent parts.”
"I have been at the National Art Museum for many years but I do not remember anything like this happening. But it is not a unique case for other museums."
In early September this year, António Filipe Pimentel, director of the National Museum of Ancient Art, issued a warning at a conference, "One of these days there will be a calamity in the museum as there are only 64 staff for the entire museum to cover 82 rooms open to the public."
The deputy director said today that St Gabriel "has a very considerable historical value and the restoration team hopes to repair it in the shortest period possible and return the statue for public view."
