Man in Wheelchair Held in Try to Torch Vatican Raphael Oil
A man in a wheelchair tried to set fire to a 16th-Century painting by Raphael in the Vatican Museum today by setting ablaze a flammable liquid he tossed at the painting, Vatican officials said.
Museum guards restrained the man, quickly extinguished the flames and prevented the work from being damaged, said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro.
The Italian news agency ANSA said police identified the man as Thomas Lange, a 31-year-old West German from Berlin who had been living in Italy about a year.
The incident occurred in the Vatican Picture Gallery, which contains some of Raphael’s most famous works. Navarro said the man’s target was the Madonna of Foligno, painted from 1512 to 1513.
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