German tourists have vandalised a 460-year-old landmark with football-related graffiti, police in Italy have said.
The Vasari Corridor in Florence, Italy, had “DKS 1860”, a reference to Munich FC, spray painted on seven of its archways.
The tourists, aged 20 and 21, are alleged to have defaced the corridor while staying in an Airbnb with nine others, according to Carabinieri military police.
It comes after dozens of Italian landmarks have been vandalised this year, with one man claiming he wasn’t aware of the “antiquity” of Rome’s Colosseum after he was filmed scratching his and his girlfriend’s name into it.
The suspects were caught after police raided the Airbnb and found two cans of spray paint and paint-stained clothing in the property.
In a statement, the Florentine Carabinieri told CNN: “The Carabinieri of the Operations Unit of the Florence and of the Uffizi Carabinieri Station, analyzing video surveillance footage, managed to identify two individuals who, at 5.20 this morning, damaged the very important artistic site.”
Italy’s Culture Ministry said the vandalism would require 10,000 euros worth (£8,570) of repairs, with work to be carried out under the watch of 24-hour armed guards.
In June a man was caught by a fuming sightseer engraving “Ivan + Hayley 23” into the 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome.