A tourist from Missouri is having his most embarrassing day ever in historic measure for flicking a pinkie finger off a 600-year-old Virgin Mary Statue displayed at Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The 600-year-old statue was an art piece from 14th century medieval sculptor Giovanni D'Ambrogio.

As a result, the tourist is now in hot waters suffering backlash from other tourists all over the globe.

The tourist who refused to be named was seen measuring the statue's pinkie finger when he accidentally broke it. Obviously, he didn't follow the supposedly given rule when visiting a museum, that is, never touch the arts on display.

A report from Daily News said that the museum's head, Timothy Verdon, was totally outraged by the tourist's irresponsible behaviour. He was caught yelling to nobody in particular when he found out about the incident.

"In a globalized world like ours, the fundamental rules for visiting a museum have been forgotten, that is, 'Do not touch the works'. We are sure that the damage was caused by the American tourist because the work has recently returned from the exhibition at the Uffizi Golden Flashes, where it was exposed, and then on its return was carefully controlled," Mr Verdon said.

The cost of the repair to put the pinkie back to its original form was not estimated yet.

"It is a fairly simple restoration will be done by the restorers of the Opera del Duomo," an email from the museum said.

The tourist was reported to the city police of Florence, he apologised and was obviously disappointed with what he did.

In a report from ABC News, Ambra Nepi, head of communications for Florence's museum, said that the finger was in fact damaged and was only repaired years earlier.

"This was already a very fragile piece of art. But every year throughout the Duomo we have many items that are damaged and broke. We are confident that it can be eventually restored."

There were no surveillance cameras around the museum and only the security guards were roaming around the place. The incident happened so quickly that the security guard designated in the area was not successful to stop the tourist when he started touching the statue.

The museum did not press any charges against the tourist.