Carabinieri art cops on Wednesday stopped a man in St Ignatius of Loyola Church in the heart of Rome as he was approaching the altar with a large hammer, police said Thursday. The 52-year-old Roman with a criminal record was said to be in a "clearly confused state". He was stopped by a Carabiniere from the nearby cultural heritage protection unit who together with a colleague stopped him from damaging the splendid Baroque church consecrated to the founder of the Jesuit Order. The crack Carabinieri art cops unit was created in 1969, the first of its kind in the world, predating by a year the UNESCO convention against art crime.
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