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Mount Vesuvius and the ruins of Pompeii, from which Nicole stole the "cursed" Pompeii artifacts. Source: dbvirago / Adobe Stock

Woman Begs Italy to Take Back “Cursed” Pompeii Artifacts

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A Canadian woman has blamed her double mastectomy on “cursed” Pompeii artifacts that she stole from the famous Italian archaeological site earlier in her life. She was so convinced of their evil powers that’s she has sent them back!

Imagine living in a world where stones hold positive and negative energies, where inanimate objects can possibly be programmed by evil entities and inflict disease on those who broke any of God’s 10 divine laws. Well, this is the bizarre reality the Canadian woman, known to the media only as “Nicole” lived in. And 15 years after she stole the cursed Pompeii artifacts, she sent them back claiming they were indeed possessed of evil intentions.

Nicole Broke One Of The 10 Divine Laws: Theft!

The archaeological site of Pompeii at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy’s Campania region, was a thriving Roman city until it was buried beneath meters of ash and pumice after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Today, the city’s excavated streets and houses are an open-air museum that visitors can freely explore, and steal artifacts from, apparently.

A famous Pompeii mosaic which could be turned into thousands of "cursed" Pompeii artifacts, if you believed in bad luck and dark destiny. ( Sergii Figurnyi / Adobe Stock)

A famous Pompeii mosaic which could be turned into thousands of "cursed" Pompeii artifacts, if you believed in bad luck and dark destiny. ( Sergii Figurnyi / Adobe Stock)

According to The Guardian, in 2005, Nicole was in her early 20s when she visited Pompeii’s archaeological park and stole two ancient mosaic tiles, “parts of an amphora and a piece of ceramics”, the theft of which she now blames for “a run of misfortune” including financial hardship and having breast cancer twice. In her enclosed letter of confession, Nicole wrote that the artifacts have “so much negative energy linked to that land of destruction,” and she pleaded with the Italian archaeological authorities to, “Please take them back, they bring bad luck,” claiming that she had learned her lesson and wanted “forgiveness from God”.

How “Cursed” People Come To Believe In Curses

Pompeii has become one of Italy s most visited tourist attractions and for many years tourists shamelessly stole parts of the city. But Nicole is not the first person who has suffered the results of an alleged curse. A 2015 Vintage News article discussing the curse of Pompeii says that for “a rational mind” the people of Pompeii had misfortune coming their way by living so closing to a sleeping volcano. For “simple minded folks” the curse of Pompeii is a real thing. And according to Mail Online it is “simplemindedness” that causes a lot of thieves who stole the relics from Pompeii to mail them back to Italian authorities saying their lives have been ruined by the curse inherent in these objects, objects they stole!

This Pompeii mosaic suggest the face in the center is experiencing something that is less than pleasant, the result of a curse perhaps! (Paul Stevenson / CC BY 2.0)

This Pompeii mosaic suggest the face in the center is experiencing something that is less than pleasant, the result of a curse perhaps! (Paul Stevenson / CC BY 2.0)

Nicole says that she is now 36-years-old and, since she stole the mosaic tiles, has had breast cancer twice, resulting in a double mastectomy, and her family experienced serious and continuous financial problems. She said, “We re good people and I don t want to pass this curse on to my family or children.” Nicole is perhaps unaware that, according to BreastCancer.org, “about 1 in 8 U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime.” Certainly, not 1 in 8 U.S. woman have visited Pompeii. Furthermore, all families will experience some form of financial hardship, even rich ones, and one of the rules of this world seems to be, good stuff often happens to bad humans and horrors occur in the lives of people that believe they are good.

This Pompeii artwork suggests the presence of good and evil. (sovach / Adobe Stock)

This Pompeii artwork suggests the presence of good and evil. (sovach / Adobe Stock)

Biblical Archaeology Can Be Misinterpreted Or Worse!

For Ancient Origins readers, what is perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is how someone can link breast cancer or financial hardship with archaeological artifacts, in the face of overwhelming scientific research that demonstrates cancer is caused when a body's cells begin to divide without stopping. This absence of logic indicates that Nicole perhaps doesn’t believe in science and having found no cure for her specific type of cancer she may have sought answers elsewhere. And the obvious resource for a religious woman, like Nicole, would be the Bible, the Church and other institutions or faiths.

Nicole has always had an interest in archaeology and this led her to steal the “cursed” Pompeii artifacts. And being a religious person interested in the past there can be no doubt Nicole was familiar with “Biblical Archaeology.” If you type enter the words “Pompeii” and “Curse” into the BiblicalArchaeology.org search engine an article appears entitled “ The Destruction of Pompeii—Gods Revenge?" This suggests that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD was a God sent “curse" for the Roman destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Here we have an apparently academic religious organization pushing the medieval notion that God cursed Pompeii and modern “simpleminded folk,” as the British media refer to them. Isn’t this really the same as saying two plus two equals five?

However, in all fairness, if anyone in my family suffered from a double mastectomy I too might send all my archaeological artifacts back to their places of origin. I might also be driven to find answers, as Nicole apparently did, within the field of Biblical Archaeology, that stormy tideline where scientific facts collide with religious beliefs, where articles of faith are often more powerful than the evidence provided by empirical experimentation.

Top image: Mount Vesuvius and the ruins of Pompeii, from which Nicole stole the "cursed" Pompeii artifacts. Source: dbvirago / Adobe Stock

By Ashley Cowie

 

Comments

My first thought was “this woman is crazy”.

My second thought was “Well I wouldn't take the crap if she offered it for free to me”.

So maybe my first thought was wrong.

ashley cowie's picture

Ashley

Ashley is a Scottish historian, author, and documentary filmmaker presenting original perspectives on historical problems in accessible and exciting ways.

He was raised in Wick, a small fishing village in the county of Caithness on the north east coast of... Read More

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