Twenty guards and several security cameras around and yet two vandals manage to damage exhibitions objects in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. The perpetrators were two women, who were captured by the CCTV cameras.
The Greek Culture Ministry said it has launched investigation into an incident of vandalism that took place on July 28th .
In a statement issued on Thursday, August 16th, the Ministry said two people entered rooms with temporary and permanent exhibitions and sprayed an oily substance on several objects as well as on the walls.
According to media, the vandals sprayed the oily substance also into the pulpit of an Early Christian chapel, at the double tomb from Stamata Attikis as well as to a Coptic Cross.
The vandalism was discovered later and not during the action.
At the time of the incident twenty guards were on duty, only two of them were in the rooms where the woman sprayed the substance.
“A guard saw one woman trying to touch an object and told her we do not touch the objects, and the woman moved back,” Katerina Delaporta, the director of the Museum told state broadcaster ERT TV.
Delaporta added that the women had sprayed several objects as well as the floor of the room. “Our experts found that the oily substance was baby oil with paraffin,” she revealed.
Police and Forensics Dept have gathered evidence and traces.
No permanent damage on the objects has been caused, the statement said adding that almost all objects have been cleaned.
It is not the first time such an incident take place.
A year ago, in May 2017, a woman had sprayed tombstones at the Museum of Royal Tombs of Aigai in Vergina, Macedonia. The spray contained a color- and odorless, oily substance. With this, she ‘painted’ the bases of more than 10 tombstones, protective shields made of plexiglass and a number of photographs and information signs.
Based on the footage captured by the CCTV cameras, the woman was believed to be of African origin. Police search brought no results.
Now everybody is wondering whether this form of vandalism is linked to some kind of a secret cult ritual.
