Italian Government officials confirmed that a valuable statue of the god Mars, on loan to the prime minister's office, has been fitted with an artificial penis. The original was chipped off at some stage in its long life, beginning in AD175. Reportedly, the transplant was carried out at Berlusconi's "express request" and that, along with a new hand for an accompanying statue of the goddess Venus, it had cost the Italian taxpayer £60,000 (about $120,000 CND). Some might argue that, with Berlusconi as prime minister, adding the penis to the statue may have been redundant.