Vatican, 13 June, 2023 / 12:32 pm (ACI Africa).
Vatican judges on Monday found two climate activists guilty of criminally damaging the base of an important statue in the Vatican Museums during a protest last year.
As part of the conviction, Guido Viero, 61, and Ester Goffi, 26, were ordered to pay a combined approximately $30,390 in damages to Vatican City State. They were also ordered to pay $1,080 for the Vatican’s defense and, together with a third defendant, an unspecified amount in trial costs.
Viero and Goffi were additionally each given suspended fines of $1,620 and suspended sentences of nine months in prison. The suspensions are lifted if the crime is committed again within five years.
Viero and Goffi superglued their hands to the marble base holding Laocoön and His Sons, an ancient marble sculpture on display in the Vatican Museums, on the morning of Aug. 18, 2022.
They were found guilty of aggravated damage to the base of the statue through the use of “particularly tough and corrosive synthetic adhesive.”
