Police have arrested an Irish tourist after he allegedly broke a stone statue by climbing on top of it in Brussels.
Shocked witnesses in Belgium watched on as the man scrambled on to the back of a stone lion.
A video clip shows the tourist in a white T-shirt and black shorts sat on the piece of art before attempting to swing his leg over.
However, as he appears to put his weight on another part of the statue, it snaps off and can be heard smashing on the ground below.
The man has since been arrested and the managers of the building have reportedly called for him to pay the repair work.
The building, known as the Bourse, reopened just one day before the incident after a three-year £77million restoration project.
As the man dismounts the sculpture, which depicts a lion and a man holding a torch, he snaps the torch and what appears to be part of the arm off.
"The repairs are going to cost a lot of money because the work will have to be done by real craftsmen," Nel Vandevennet, who managed the restoration project, told outlet VRT NWS.
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"It is listed heritage and there will be follow-up from the monuments and landscapes agency of the Brussels region."
The statue suffered erosion before its restoration, and will now need to be worked on again.
Vandevennet said: "We would like to carry out the repairs quickly, but it will surely take a few weeks or even months."
"The whole building has only just been restored to its former glory, including the two lions which were in a bad way.
A tourist who climbed onto a Renaissance statue of the god Neptune in Florence was branded an 'imbecile' and faces a hefty fine
Twitter"We thought the sculptures would enjoy greater respect. We just think it's very sad this happened."
It comes after another tourist climbed onto a Renaissance statue of the god Neptune in Florence.
The German holidaymaker clambered up the fountain for a photograph before a system sounded an alarm as he jumped down from the statue.
He is accused of breaking off a chunk of marble from Neptune’s chariot and damaging the hoof of a sculpted horse at the base of the monument.
