Originally published at: Instagram fool damages 6,000-year-old cave art for likes, faces wrath of Spanish authorities - Boing Boing
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That site is quite literally on my itinerary for a trip in 2027. If that jackass causes it to be unavailable to the rest of us then no punishment is too severe. FFS.
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I think we should have a tourist licensing system. A nominal fee verified with your passport. You misbehave and you get your license revoked and can’t visit sits that have priceless cultural objects.
Treat anyone entering without a valid license as trespassing and send them to the local authorities.
(yes, all easier said than done. but I’m kind of sick of this B.S.)
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This is why we can’t have anything nice.
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As the OP hasn’t post the source nor has done a very good job parsing the machine translation content, here’s the source:
And a bit more info:
- The man is a local from the area. So no touron, just an asshole, specially because…
- He basically sprayed water to get better photos for his facebook feed. Police was able to track him thanks to that.
- The man is under investigation for crimes against the historical heritage (LO 10/1995 art 323): up to three years per crime, or equivalent fine up to two years.
- He’s unlikely to escape unscathed because there is a ton of self-evidence, and he was warned in the past. So even if the damage is superficial, he’s a reincident. He probably is not going to get off with a slap in the wrist.
The article continues explaining that the area around Jaen has been quite neglected for many years and there’s been quite a lot of vandalic acts. Most of the paintings are on shallow, easily accessible caves.
The worst one so far was a FRIGGIN IDGIT that spraypainted a mural called “the shamans” or “the priestesses” - it depicts two masked figures conducting what appears to be some kind of funerary rite.
Finally, the article explains why is bad that he sprayed water over the paintings. Humidity forms a salt cover on the paints, and this salt is partially from the rocks below and from the paints. Spraying water clears the salt, but draws more from the paint and rock, so it degrades faster.
It ends saying that the goverment of Andalusia (the southern state of spain where the paintings are) is responsible for maintaining them but they have not been providing enough resources.
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Also, I would add this is not the worst case, just the most blatant because the IDGIT was posting the photos. At the beginning of the year some GRADE A I DON’T KNOW HOW YOU CAN LIVE WITH YOURSELVES MORONS spraypainted a spanish flag over prehistoric paintings in Ciudad real (basically a couple hundred kilometers from this place)
I’ve recently discovered a youtube channel called Desert Drifter that - if I understood correctly - explores pueblan ruins in mesa canyons.
The guys who spraypainted this wall did the equivalent of going to one of these mesas, and painting a 10 meter wide US flag over pueblan paintings, just because.
ETA: (I confused above for over)
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another english source.
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This is how they left the priestess after:
Let’s just say I wish I could be in the same room as them to plant my fist up the*** /noises of being dragged away
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I’ve been planning a trip to explore several prehistoric cave sites in Europe for awhile now. Lascaux, Matravieso, Chauvet, Altamira, Albarracin and several others. This stuff fascinates me (in a totally amateur way).
The fact that they exist in walking range of good food and tapas is just a wonderful benefit.
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Well, I think we just found a “volunteer” to pay for the work to repair/restore the artwork. Maybe he can ask his followers to like and pay.
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bummed the author didn’t link to the source. i expected better from boing boing.
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