American takes stone from Roman aqueduct and tries to sell it online

Segovia Metropolis Council in Castilla y Leon has lodged a proper criticism towards an American man accused of eradicating a stone from town’s well-known Roman aqueduct and trying to public sale it on-line for €1,000.

The suspect, Glenn Murray, has lived in Spain for many years and is a well known native heritage activist. He claimed the motion was a type of protest towards what he describes as years of neglect of the UNESCO World Heritage website. In response to Murray, he supposed to donate the proceeds from the sale to a charity chosen by the customer.

The granite block in query weighs 17.3 kilos and measures 25 x 22 x 15 centimetres. Murray argued that it had already fallen from the construction and that he merely picked it up, sharing movies on-line in an try to indicate it was unfastened. The gross sales publish described it as a “distinctive alternative to accumulate an genuine stone from the Segovia Aqueduct”.

“The stone didn’t fall from the monument”

Nonetheless, Segovia’s councillor for city planning and heritage, Alejandro Gonzalez, dismissed this model throughout an interview on Friday August 8 with Cadena COPE, stating: “The stone didn’t fall from the monument; it was torn off.” The council maintains that the block got here not from the principle aqueduct itself, however from a masonry wall within the close by Plaza de Avendano – an space that also varieties a part of the protected Roman heritage website.

Authorities have ordered Murray to return the stone to the Provincial Museum for conservation, potential restoration and eventual reinstatement. The case has been referred to the Prosecutor’s Workplace as a possible crime towards heritage, and the regional authorities of Castile y Leon has been notified of a potential severe violation of heritage regulation.

Public consideration

Murray has lengthy been vocal about what he sees as inadequate safety for the aqueduct. He has criticised the absence of signage to cease guests leaning on its base, the dearth of obstacles to stop autos from approaching too intently, and the tolerance of botellones – outside consuming events – at its foot. He claims these actions contribute to its deterioration and that his actions have been supposed to attract public consideration to the difficulty.

Past this newest controversy, Murray is well-known in Segovia for his decades-long marketing campaign to revive one other of town’s historic treasures: the Segovia Mint. Born in Los Angeles in 1952, he moved to Spain in 1987 to check the deserted constructing. Supported by grants from the American Numismatic Affiliation and Spain’s nationwide mint, he carried out in depth analysis within the Simancas and Nationwide Historic Archives. His doctoral thesis, accomplished in 2004, demonstrated that the hydraulic mint constructed by Philip II in 1583 was the oldest, most superior and best-preserved instance of its sort on the earth.

Legal costs

In 1993, Murray based the Mates of the Segovia Mint Affiliation, which efficiently lobbied for the positioning to be declared a Web site of Cultural Curiosity in 2000. This standing opened the best way for stabilisation works and its inclusion within the European EuroMint mission. After years of advocacy, a restoration settlement was signed in 2005 and the work was accomplished in 2011 – practically 1 / 4 of a century after Murray started his marketing campaign.

Now, the person as soon as celebrated for his heritage work finds himself going through potential legal costs in a case that has stirred debate in Segovia about how its most iconic landmark is protected.