A man in Spain is under investigation after allegedly damaging cave paintings dating back thousands of years in order to take pictures of them for social media, authorities said.
The 39-year-old from the Andalusia region allegedly poured water on the drawings and then uploaded the photographs on Facebook, Spain’s Guardia Civil said in a statement over the weekend.
The damaged paintings, located at several sites in the Sierra Sur de Jaén mountain range, are protected by a heritage register and the alleged culprit is now being investigated for a crime against historical heritage, according to the statement.
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Authorities opened their investigation after the images appeared online in May, according to CNN. “The photographs show that water has been poured onto the cave paintings, wetting them in order to see them better and capture a clearer image,” the statement reads.
Paintings in the range—some of which are estimated to be over 6,000 years old—are on limestone. When water is poured on limestone, salts in the rock dissolve and then rise to the surface when the water evaporates, in turn creating a crust which leaves “irreparable damage” to the paintings, the Guardia Civil said.
