Bacchus is the Roman god of wine and fertility, famed for his love of a sexy, drunken good time. And yet, the city of Florence wants to issue a lifetime ban against a presumed tourist for her racy pose with a replica of a nude Bacchus statue by Giambologna.

Last week, the Instagram account @welcome_to_Florence shared a pair of blurry photographs of a blonde woman in a black top and denim shorts in an erotic embrace with the artwork. First, she wraps her arms and leg around the figure to give him a kiss, then she turns to grind against the Bacchus statue’s nether regions.

To be honest, the simulated sex acts seem like just the sort of night on the town that the wine-loving deity, who lends his name to the word Bacchanalian, would have appreciated.

But after the photos went viral, the city was quick to condemn the woman. City Hall told CNN she was “presumably in a state of inebriation.” If identified, officials insisted, she will be fined, and possibly banned from Florence for life.

But not everyone is so quick to cast stones. Art critic and former culture minister Vittorio Sgarbi, called it “a transfiguration: when art is truer than life. A loving exaltation,” on X. “No real man can compete with Cellini’s Perseus.”

He later clarified that he didn’t mean to justify the woman’s actions, but compared the incident to the legend of Michelangelo striking his Moses statue when the realistic figure refused to speak: “The girl made a mistake, but she irrationally felt the strength of art, as absolute life.”

Non intendevo affatto giustificare la ragazza.
Intendevo dire che non si tratta di vandalismo, ma di esaltazione ingiustificabile, ma spiegabile.

Davanti alla forza dell’arte,lo stesso Michelangelo martellò il suo Mosè: “Perchè non parli?”
Forse una leggenda, ma fortemente… pic.twitter.com/zoxYqTV9Jf

— Vittorio Sgarbi (@VittorioSgarbi) July 17, 2024

The artwork is displayed in a niche with a fountain in the Torre dei Rossi-Cerchi, a reconstructed medieval tower near the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The original statue has been on view at the Bargello Museum since 2006. But some argue that even though the photo op didn’t endanger the authentic work of art, that doesn’t mean it was okay.

“Tourists are welcome, but there must be respect for our monuments, whether they are originals or copies,” Antonella Ranaldi, the city arts superintendent, told the Corriere della Sera. “Not least because I doubt that this woman, who I blame, knows the difference.”

There have been other recent incidents. A teenager climbed to the top of Santa Maria del Fiore, the city’s famed Duomo, for a selfie earlier this month, as reported by the Guardian. In September, CNN reported that a 22-year-old German man caused €5,000 ($5,354) worth of damage climbing on a 16th-century marble statue of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria.

Questo turista ha pensato bene di salire sul Nettuno per un selfie. Per fortuna nessun danno, il sistema di allarme ha funzionato. Grazie alle telecamere del Comune è stato individuato e pagherà una multa salata. Contro il vandalismo sui beni culturali non ci sono giustificazioni pic.twitter.com/QVvBNYaygI

— Dario Nardella (@DarioNardella) September 4, 2023

Now, however amusing it might be, the sexy Bacchus statue photos may be the final straw for the city in terms of cracking down on misbehavior among visitors.

“These constant displays of rudeness and incivility happen because everyone feels entitled to do whatever they want with impunity,” Patrizia Asproni of the Confcultura culture organization added. “We need to apply the ‘Singapore model’—tight controls, hefty fines, zero tolerance.”

Though such measures may seem extreme, unauthorized photo ops with art at Italian institutions have proved damaging in the past.

In 2014, a student smashed a replica of the ancient statue The Drunken Satyr at Milan’s Academy of Fine Arts of Brera. And in 2020, Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix lost her toes when a visitor to Possagno’s Museo Antonio Canova sat in her lap. (Sgarbi, then president Antonio Canova Foundation, was less forgiving in that incident, calling for the man to be arrested before he could leave the country.)

Tourists have also wrecked havoc on historic sites such as Rome’s Spanish Steps—damaged by a scooter and a sports car, in quick succession in 2022. And last summer, there were two vandalism incidents at the Colosseum, also in Rome.