Middle Eastern Antiquities

On the second trip to Paris we went to the Louvre again, and again we went to the Middle Eastern antiquities section.

Hannah was looking at the enormous bas-relief statues of Assyrian gods and kings - giant bull bodied unicorns with eagles wings, and proud faces under tall crowns. For the moment the crowds had flowed away and Hannah was the only person in the room, alone with the statues. She noticed that the statue she stood next to didn't look as proud as the others - in fact it had such a deeply sad expression on her face that it made her heart sink to look at it.

As she looked at the statue's face a giant tear formed on the statue's face and fell to the ground at her feet with a disty splash.

"What's wrong?" said Hannah. "Are you sad to be locked up in here?"

"No" said the statue in a deep, sad voice. "I'm with the other gods and kings here, just as I wish to be. This is my place and I am sure those who come to see me have come to worship me, just as it was in my homeland."

"Then what's wrong?" said Hannah.

Its voice catching, as if it was trying not to cry, the statue said "But what is a king without his crown?".

Hannah noticed for the first time that this statue was not complete - that a section of its headdress had been knocked off, leaving a section of rough stone at the top of its head.

"Oh that's terrible!" she said. "How did you lose your crown?"

"I was broken when they removed me from my home temple. No one noticed the missing piece and I was nailed up in a crate and sent to Paris."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she said.

The statue was silent.

Hannah could feel that the statue was holding back, so she spoke again. "Anything?"

The statue hesitated, and then said "Exhibit #463" and then refused to speak again.

Hannah left the room and began to search through the gallery. She found a small section, far from the major exhibits, where dozens of minor fragments of statues sat on series of small shelves built into the wall of the building. Beside one was a label saying "Exhibit #463. Assyrian bas-relief fragment, possibly headdress or crown."

She looked around to see if anyone was watching, then grabbed the fragment from its niche in the wall. As she picked it up there was a tiny click and a distant bell began ringing - the security alarm. She stuck the stony fragment under her coat and began hurrying towards the statue's room. In the distance she could see two security guards hurrying down the corridor towards the room she'd just been in. They looked determined and upset, and one of them looked at her suspiciously.

She ran up to the statue and cried "What do I do now? The guards are coming!"

"Throw it!" said the statue. "Throw it!"

She threw the fragment of stone high into the air, towards the statue's head. It clicked firmly into place, like two magnets coming together. And there was not the faintest sign of a seam, not the tiniest crack in the perfect stone head.

A guard stuck his head into the room and saw nothing but a small girl standing, looking up at a statue.

The guards never found fragment #463. They never notice that one of the great statues had been repaired. And they never noticed that it now had a totally different expression on its face.