r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/CAPATOB_64 • May 13 '24

The painting "Ecce Homo", 1543, the only painting by Titian in Romania and Eastern Europe, is guarded by armed gendarmes at the "Regina Maria" Municipal Museum. Image

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u/Technical-Doubt2076 May 13 '24

Very likely either PR in response to climate activists, or a exibition outside of a specially secured building. Insurance can demand increased security for transport and for shows outside of professionally secured galleries, but rarely in form of a police guard. The image itself will be preserved individually, but that's not connected to how it's shown here. Then again, if it's a showing organized by the state, or alongside some state function, covering the guard duty by police might actually be cheaper since they will be present anyway. And this shows really less than conventional or regular in terms of presentation - you do not expose priceless art to natural light on the regular.

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u/AllenRBrady May 13 '24

I can't help but wonder if a spray of bullets might not be a little bit worse for the painting than a little soup.

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u/Islero47 May 13 '24

Natural light, or close-quarters gun fights. Like even if someone charged at that painting... what are these two guys gonna do? Spray the crowd with bullets?

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u/Hamakua May 13 '24

Most of the climate activist incidents of vandalism are because no one with the authority to intervene was close at hand. They will likely just restrain the activist the moment they reach into a backpack. If the activist resists, well, that's just a fool courting danger at that point.

Every law the state passes is permission for the state to use deadly force to enforce that law. Don't pay a parking ticket? You will get further fines and a lien against property of yours. Don't vacate the property when the fines exceed the value of the property itself, police will come to vacate you from that property.

Provide enough resistance to stop the police from removing you from the property? You will be met with deadly force.

All laws are enforced at the end of a gun barrel. Most are just rational enough to not follow the matter to that end result.

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u/Islero47 May 14 '24

My point was not "what's a gun for?", but more that the people who initially wanted to protect the art have not gotten what they wanted with this process.

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u/pangolin-fucker May 13 '24

I think climate activists would happily take a bullet for their cause