Mr Punch: firm but fair.
The Italians, who brought us Mr Punch, have just shown us British how to deal with those who vandalise ancient monuments. They’ve just wacked a Russian tourist with a €20,000 fine and a suspended prison sentence for carving a single letter on The Colosseum. Compare that with the peanuts imposed on a millionaire for bulldozing part of the Priddy Circles, the nothing that the person who did the same at Offa’s Dyke had to pay and the pat on the head (no doubt) that was given to those who staged a metal detecting rally on the site of Weyhill Fair. We could go on. For ages.
How refreshing were the words of the director of the Colosseum, Rossella Rea, who said the fine was justified as the visitor had damaged a magnificent and symbolic monument and “You cannot write on a historic wall, it’s absolutely forbidden” and of Darius Arya, a Rome-based archaeologist, who said the fine would send a powerful message to would-be vandals: “It’s an extraordinarily high fee. This says ‘we have no patience’; they’re upping the ante as a new form of protection.”
Quite!
The Heritage Journal 
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
10/12/2014 at 19:54
wooster
Comparing the colloseum and its hundreds of thousands of visitors per year to a tumulus and a fair site is hardly any comparison at all. How many vists by tourists pa do either site get? Ten if you are lucky.
18/12/2014 at 16:44
heritageaction
Yes but thinking Priddy (or was it Offa’s Dyke?) is a tumulus suggests only one thing: a metal detectorist. Maybe even one of the heroes who rushed to Weyhill Fair!