A Russian tourist has been fined €20,000 after carving a ‘K’ on to the Colosseum in Rome.
The 42-year-old man was seen using a rock to scratch the 10-inch letter on the brick facade of the amphitheatre built in 80AD.
He was caught by a security guard and arrested by police at the scene.
The news agency ANSA said the tourist was given a fine and a suspended four-year jail sentence on Saturday.
Rossella Rea, the director of the Colosseum, told the Guardian the fine was warranted.
"You cannot write on an historic wall, it’s absolutely forbidden," she told the Guardian.
But she denied that the vandalism was happening more frequently.
She added that six million people visit the Colosseum each year, with just handful of other incidents reported – one involving an Australian man and his son, one a Brazilian teenager, and another a Canadian visitor.
