THE NATIONAL WAX Museum have sent their wax figure of Pope John Paul II off for repairs, following an incident that occurred over the August Bank Holiday.
The figure, which is looking a bit worse for wear, was found by a staff member who entered the Father Ted Room (which is impressively realistic but sadly looks like the majority of the Dublin rental market’s offerings at the moment).
In a statement, The National Wax Museum explained the situation:
One of our floor staff was doing the rounds when he entered the Father Ted Room and found the body strewn on the chair and his head lying on the floor. Initially we suspected it was a targeted attack on this particular waxwork. I personally have found chewing gum stuck on his head and removed it earlier this year. We don’t know if it was foul play or not.
The Museum was forced to share a press release after a number of issues arose from the destruction and removal of the Pope.
We actually had a very irate review on Facebook giving us one star from that weekend because the visitor had seen the broken sculpture and assumed we had severely lowered our standards.
When they removed it, they received another complaint for a strangely amusing reason.
We also had a rather in depth Tripadvisor review asking why we had removed the Pope’s waxwork as they had traveled in to take a photo with it but were sorely disappointed with his omission.
There’s no winning. But who’d have thought people headed to the Wax Museum just to see Pope John Paul II?
Repairing the damage is not going to be cheap.
There’s a scratch on one side of his face, which would be a relatively straightforward fix for our sculptor. However, the opposite side of his face is suffering some worse damage. The eye has come out of the socket and that side is a little squashed out of shape.
The museum estimates that the repairss will take up to four months and could cost €5,000. The sculptor may have to start from scratch on a new head.
However, the museum are taking it in their stride.
Their marketing manager Laoise Keaveney expressed that “There’s no use crying over a split pope.”
We’ll get over it, and he’s on the mend. The resounding message we’d like to convey to the public is that we’d like them to be careful with the waxworks and still have a fun time with us.
As well as that, they are urging visitors to report any broken sculptures or props in future to assure they can be suitably fixed or replaced, rather than leaving bad reviews.
There are so many questions to be asked here, but the most important is… Am I the only person who thought the wax figures were made of solid wax?
