The damage caused by Feyenoord fans who broke off pieces and scarred the famed Barcaccia fountain in Rome's Piazza di Spagna last month are worth about 5.2 million euros, the Italian capital's Cultural Heritage Superintendent Claudio Parisi Presicce told ANSA on Thursday.
He said damage had been assessed "on more fronts", including specifically vandalism by the Dutch fans on the 17th-century Bernini masterpiece at the foot of the Spanish Steps, which had just recently been unveiled after a lengthy restoration.
He said "three interventions necessary to repair the damage" have been estimated to cost 75,000 euros, to which authorities added 209,000 euros, or "the cost of the restoration we had just completed in September which has been completely undone". "We then estimated the lost value of the monument, the permanent damage caused to the masterwork by those 108 scars, in 1.2 million euros", Said Parisi Presicce.
The masterpiece commissioned by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 is estimated to be worth 60 million euros.
The damage to Rome's image was then estimated to be worth 3-4 million euros, though the superintendent said a further evaluation will be completed in the coming months, based on the incident's effect on tourism flows.
The drunken Dutch fans, defying a booze ban and spoiling for trouble ahead of a Europa League match against AS Roma, also caused damage estimated to be worth 158,000 euros for rampaging through the city and damaging buses they boarded after moving away from the Spanish Steps.
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