Rome Italy - Vatican: Laocoon and his Son's

When the statue was discovered, Laocoon's right arm was missing, Artists and connoisseurs debated how the missing parts should be interpreted.

Michelangelo suggested that the missing right arms were originally bent back over the shoulder. Others, however, believed it was more appropriate to show the right arms extended outwards in a heroic gesture. The Pope held an informal contest among sculptors to make replacement right arms, which was judged by Raphael. The winner, in the outstretched position, was attached to the statue.

In 1906 Ludwig Pollak, archaeologist, art dealer and director of the Museo Barracco, discovered a fragment of a marble arm in a builder's yard in Rome. Noting a stylistic similarity to the Laocoon group he presented it to the Vatican Museums: it remained in their storerooms for half a century. In the 1950s the museum decided that this arm—bent, as Michelangelo had suggested—had originally belonged to this Laocoon.

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• Laocoon and his Sons
• Michelangelo
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