Thank you so much! Since I am not from the area, I didn't get a chance to look up other places. It seems my in-laws knew about the statue, but didn't know where it came from.
I got a kick out of this person who wrote to the paper:
Brian wrote on Jul 7, 2008 1:05 PM: " Just wondering if any of you super religious folks knew the following:Hadrian was in fact, a gay man. While on a tour of the empire in Egypt, Hadrian's younger male lover drowned in the river Nile. Hadrian then declared an empire wide state of mourning. How's them apples religious right? "
I wrote back and said it doesn't matter who the statue is about, it is from Rome, 127 AD!
Do you think it should be auctioned off? Given or Sold back to Rome, but not the money going to the banksharholders, but to the people, or given to a museum, like LSU? Or just give it to me! haha
Thank you again!
Salve, D
From The Independent, Hadrian waltz out of New Iberia:
"... The 7-foot-tall, full length statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian... Carved in 127 A.D. ... the statue is the only extant full length portrait of the emperor in the United States. It was removed from Rome in 1820 by the 4th Earl of Darnley, and brought to Coban Hall in Kent, England. From there, it came into the possession of New Orleans collector Wilson J. Raker, until it was sold at auction by Sothby and Co. in 1957. IberiaBank purchased the statue for $3,000. Its worth today is speculated anywhere from $300,000 to nearly $1 million... New Iberia historian Paul Schwing, at first the statue was inside the bank. "When they first put it up outside, it was facing the Baptist Church... The ancient statue lost one of his fingers during that time as well. "That's when they put him under glass,"
By Mary Tutwiler
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Some tourist information sites state the statue arrived at 1961.