Apparently the show of tearing down Saddam Hussein statues in Iraq wasn't just a media event, it was an expedition to gather raw materials for new statuary:
[Two] 50-foot-tall towering bronze statues depicting a heroic Saddam as the mighty conqueror, on horseback, sword aloft ... were melted down and recast by a skilled Iraqi artist who turned them into a new memorial that depicts a GI mourning his fallen comrades while a young girl tries to console him. [salon]
My favorite juxtaposition of the many brain-exploding details in the article is that the new statue was designed by the original sculptor and funded by donations from soldiers.
