After Easter Island statue vandalized by a Finn many want his ear

As Grant pointed out, the Giza Pyramids are not for wandering about freely because of vandalism. Here are some more can’t get close to items. Plymouth Rock can’t be seen up close due to vandals that once chipped at it for a souvenir. You can’t wander around Stonehenge at random anymore for the same reason. You can’t get too close to Michelangelo’s, Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica either. A man attacked it years ago with a hammer, although he didn’t really want the pieces to keep, he just wanted it in pieces.

The pull to take parts of history home, particularly if the history is etched in stone, was strong enough that Marko Kulju, the Finnish tourist got his hankering to cut the ear off one of the Easter Island statues and put it in his luggage. Marko, Marko, Marko, Van Gogh did the ear thing years ago to not very good results. To add to Grant’s admonishment, didn’t your parents ever say to you, “What if everyone decided to cut an ear off the statues?”

The Chilean president is fuming mad and wants a piece of Kulju’s ear as retribution. Kulju is currently under house arrest in Chile and will have to pay a fine. I picked that one out of three options in the AOL poll today that went with the article. Many people, 37 % when I checked, want his ear.

Jeez people. Get up on the wrong side of the bed did we? Anyone ever write their name somewhere? How about pick a wildflower from a national park? Walk where the sign says, “Don’t walk.” Take that tiny arrowhead or pottery shard that no one will notice home in ones pocket? (I haven’t done one of these things, I’m just saying.)

This story is one more lesson in don’t touch so the rest of us have something left to enjoy or you may have to pay. Think of the highway signs that say fines for littering. Those count too.