Tourist fined £15,800 for graffiti at Colosseum in Rome

24 November 2014

It's turned into an unexpectedly expensive holiday for one Russian tourist in Rome.

He's been charged £15,800 and given a four-month suspended prison sentence for carving his initial 'K' onto the wall of the Colosseum.

The 42-year-old, was on holiday with his family, when a security guard caught him carving the 25cm tall letter into the brick with a sharp stone.

He was arrested at the landmark in the Italian capital.

Rossella Rea, the director of the Colosseum, says she hopes the fine will be a warning to others,

"The hefty fine was warranted as the visitor had defaced a magnificent and symbolic monument," she said.

"You cannot write on an historic wall, it's absolutely forbidden."

Gladiator graffiti

The Colosseum is 2,000 years old and graffiti there is nothing new.

It was the biggest amphitheatre built in the Roman Empire, hosting gladiatorial fights and other public entertainment.

The ancient Romans painted scenes from the arena and famous gladiators on the walls.

Last year restoration work on a passageway uncovered graffiti left by gladiators themselves as well as drawings from the 1600s.

It also revealed a number of people had signed their names on the walls in the 1940s.

The Italians coined the phrase graffiti but the authorities don't like it much.

Graffiti isn't welcome in Rome's capital

The Russian tourist is the fifth foreign visitor to be fined for defacing the Colosseum this year.

The others were an Australian father and son, and two teenagers, from Canada and Brazil.

It's been reported that only the father was old enough to be fined.

The authorities in Rome now plan to increase the number of surveillance cameras at the ancient monument.

Six million people visit it every year, and they don't want any of them to leave their mark.