By Catherine Nicholls, CNN
(CNN) — A man was taken into police custody on Saturday after he broke the armrest off an ancient Vietnamese throne recognized as a ‘national treasure,’ Vietnamese state media reported.
The throne dates back to the Nguyen Dynasty, the last royal dynasty of Vietnam, which lasted from 1802 to 1945.
The Nguyen Dynasty established the city of Hue, in the center of the country, as the capital of Vietnam when it was in power, according to UNESCO. The city’s monuments, which include several royal palaces, ritual sites and tombs, have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The throne that was broken on Saturday was located inside Hue’s Thái Hòa Palace, the city’s “most important structure,” where emperors held court and royal ceremonies were conducted, according to Vietnam News.
Shortly after 12 p.m. on Saturday (1 a.m. ET), a man showing “signs of severe intoxication” entered a roped-off restricted area of the palace and climbed up onto the throne, Vietnam News reported. He then “shouted incoherently” and broke the left armrest of the ceremonial chair, the state news website said.
A photograph posted by Nhân Dân, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, shows a part of the armrest that featured a dragon’s head lying on the floor. Two other fragments of the armrest are lying beside it.
The man that broke the throne has been sent for a psychiatric assessment, Vietnam News reported, due to his “unstable mental state” which included “delusions and incoherent speech.”
Security measures are being tightened across the entire complex of monuments, “with an emphasis on the protection of artifacts and national treasures,” the state news website added.
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