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  "path": "/news/rome-restores-tusk-snapped-off-bernini-elephant-statue.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-27T04:54:55.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.wantedinrome.com",
  "tags": [
    "News",
    "English news in Italy",
    "Culture"
  ],
  "textContent": "Incident raises concerns about Italy's precious cultural heritage in public spaces.\nRome preservation experts have completed a delicate restoration on the Elephant and Obelisk sculpture, designed by Italian Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini.\n\nTechnicians from the capitoline superintendency re-attached the marble tip of the right tusk of the 17th-century \"elefantino\" after it was snapped off last week.\n\nThe 11-centimetre fragment of tusk was found at the base of the sculpture in the central Piazza della Minerva, near the Pantheon, on the night of 16 February.\n\nInvestigators have been studying video surveillance footage to determine whether the breakage was the result of vandalism or structural fatigue, however the circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.\n\nRestoration process\nTechnical assessments confirmed that the fractured fragment was not part of Bernini's original 1667 marble but was a resin-and-marble-dust addition from a 1977 restoration.\n\nThis same section had previously been broken in 2016 and subsequently reattached.\n\nThe restoration process involved securing the recovered fragment with specialised structural adhesives and finishing the surface with a lime-based mortar to ensure aesthetic continuity.\n\nDebate\nCommissioned by Pope Alexander VII, the monument features an Egyptian obelisk from the 6th century BC mounted on the back of a marble elephant.\n\nItalian culture minister Alessandro Giuli condemned the breakage as an \"absurd act of barbarity,\" occurring just days after a major Bernini exhibition opened at Palazzo Barberini.\n\nThe incident has reignited debate about the precarious balance between free access to art and the need to protect fragile works in public spaces.\n\nPhoto Wanted in Rome",
  "title": "Rome restores tusk snapped off Bernini elephant statue"
}