Scottish Tourist Steals Stones: The Curse Of Pompeii Strikes Again

A 51-year-old Scottish tourer has been reported to nan authorities for allegedly stealing fragments of chromatic and ceramic from nan archaeological tract of Pompeii — an ancient metropolis destroyed by Mount Vesuvius successful AD 79 and agelong linked to a alleged “curse” said to bring bad luck to thieves.

According to a connection issued by nan Archaeological Park connected Thursday August 13, a circuit guideline starring a nighttime sojourn saw nan man picking up pieces of chromatic from nan streets of nan tract and placing them successful his backpack. The guideline alerted parkland guidance and security, who called nan Carabinieri.

Officers stopped nan fishy extracurricular nan site, adjacent nan Villa dei Misteri railway station, and recovered 5 stones and 1 portion of ceramic wrong his bag.

Gabriel Zuchtriegel, head of nan Archaeological Park, praised nan swift response: “Congratulations and acknowledgment to nan attentive guide, our fantabulous information unit and nan Carabinieri for this associated effort to protect our heritage.”

Investigators said nan tourer admitted he had intended nan pieces arsenic portion of his son’s postulation and claimed he was unaware it was forbidden to return them. Local Carabinieri commandant Alessandro D’Auria said checks would beryllium stepped up complete nan summertime owed to nan precocious measurement of visitors.

The incident recalls akin cases successful which visitors person returned stolen artefacts, citing a expected curse. In 2024, a female sent backmost respective pieces of chromatic pinch an anonymous letter, explaining she had bosom crab and had been unaware of nan superstition.

Zuchtriegel posted nan connection and photos of nan returned items connected societal media, writing: “Dear anonymous sender of this letter… nan pumice stones are backmost successful Pompeii… bully luck for your early and ‘in bocca al lupo’ (good luck), arsenic we opportunity successful Italy.”

In her letter, nan female wrote: “I didn’t cognize astir nan curse. I didn’t cognize I should not person taken nan stones. A twelvemonth later I was diagnosed pinch bosom cancer. I americium a patient woman, nan doctors opportunity it is conscionable ‘bad luck’. Please judge my apologies and these pieces. I americium sorry.”

The belief successful a curse is long-standing. Journalist Antonio Cangiano, writer of The Curse of Pompeii. Superstition and Archaeology, notes that those who region unauthorised souvenirs are said to suffer bad luck, misfortune and sometimes tragedy.

In 2020, a Canadian female returned stolen items pinch nan message: “Keep them. They bring bad luck.” She later explained she had been diagnosed pinch bosom crab aft her travel and linked her misfortune to nan theft from a “land of destruction” wherever “many group died successful horrible ways”.

Another Canadian couple, who took objects from Pompeii successful 2005, later apologised successful a letter: “We took them without reasoning of nan symptom and suffering these mediocre souls had felt. We are sorry. Please forgive america for this unspeakable decision. May their souls remainder successful peace.”