![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/rome-s-bernini-elephant-sculpture-loses-tip-of-its-tusk-again.jpg\")
The sculpture in Rome without the tip of the left tusk (Cecilia Fabiano\/Lapresse via AP)\n<\/p>\nItalian police are investigating how one of Rome\u2019s most beloved monuments, the elephant sculpture designed by Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, lost the tip of its left tusk \u2013 again.<\/p>\n
Police found the 11-centimetre (4in) marble fragment near the statue over the weekend.<\/p>\n
They said on Wednesday that they had determined it was not original to Bernini\u2019s work but was added on during restoration work in 1977.<\/p>\n
The sculpture in Rome without the tip of the left tusk (Cecilia Fabiano\/Lapresse via AP)\n<\/p>\n
The same tip had already broken off during an act of vandalism in 2016, Rome\u2019s city hall said.<\/p>\n
Police are now reviewing security cameras to try to work out who, if anyone, was responsible for breaking it off a second time.<\/p>\n
The stocky little elephant, not far from Rome\u2019s Pantheon, is a frequent stop for tourists.<\/p>\n
Pope Alexander VII commissioned Rome\u2019s most famous Baroque sculptor, Bernini, to design it after Dominican friars discovered a small Egyptian obelisk in the grounds of their nearby convent, which is adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva.<\/p>\n
The elephant, located in the Piazza della Minerva in front of the basilica, holds the obelisk on its back.<\/p>\n
According to the Rome city hall website, Bernini and the friars disagreed about the work: the artist believed the weight of the obelisk could be borne by the elephant\u2019s four legs, but the friars insisted the obelisk would be more stable with a stone support under its belly.<\/p>\n
They won the argument, and the stocky look gave the elephant the nickname Minerva\u2019s Piglet, because with such short legs and the central support, it looks more like a pig than an elephant.<\/p>\n
According to popular legend, Bernini took his revenge against the friars by facing the rear of the elephant with its tail lifted towards their convent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian police are investigating how one of Rome\u2019s most beloved monuments, the elephant sculpture designed by Baroque sculptor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-305048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}