“William the Hippo”, an Egyptian faience hippopotamus statuette from a tomb of the Middle Kingdom with 3 legs originally purposefully broken to prevent harming the deceased in the afterlife, now a mascot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC [2560×1938]
by Remote_Finish_9429
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Usually when statues/artifacts were broken it was due to making it purposefully not perfect to avoid it being an idol
How did they tell it was purposefully broken?
William has been the unofficial mascot of the MET since the 1930s.
Why did they fix it? Now it’ll be chasing pharaohs in Aaru.
My grandma had a replica of this gentleman on her dining room sideboard.