Reposted from Newsweek

An American tourist has been arrested in Israel after allegedly smashing and severely damaging two Roman-era statues.  The incident occurred at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Thursday, according to officials. The statues date to the 2nd century C.E. and were part of the Archeology Wing's permanent exhibition. "In a severe incident [Thursday] afternoon, a tourist from the U.S. intentionally caused damage to two ancient Roman statues from the second century C.E.," a museum spokesperson said in a statement provided to Newsweek. "The museum's staff alerted the police, which is handling the matter. The damaged statues have been moved to the museum's conservation lab for professional restoration. The museum's management, which views this as a troubling and unusual event, condemns all forms of violence and hopes such incidents will not recur. "The sculptures were knocked off their pedestals and had broken into several pieces. One is a marble head of the ancient Greek goddess Athena that was discovered in 1978 in Tel Naharon, northern Israel, Haaretz reported. The head was likely once part of a larger-than-life statue that may have stood more than 8 feet in height. The other sculpture is a depiction of a griffon—a horned, winged creature with a beak and the body of a lion—holding a wheel of fate representing the Roman god, Nemesis. This artifact was discovered in the Negev desert in southern Israel in 1957.

Police said in a statement provided to Newsweek that museum security personnel detained the tourist, a 40-year-old Jewish American man before officers arrived and apprehended him. Police then questioned him, determining that he destroyed the statues because of his religious sensibilities, believing them to be "idolatrous" and contrary to the Torah. The man's lawyer, Nick Kaufman, told the Associated Press that the 40-year-old, who has yet to be named, had not acted out of religious fanaticism. Instead, Kaufman said the tourist was showing signs of "Jerusalem syndrome"—a unique psychiatric phenomenon that occurs in some tourists and pilgrims who visit the holy city, which is sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

See Original Post