6. Prometheus is covered in gold leaf
The 18-foot-tall, eight-ton sculpture of Prometheus is made of cast bronze, just like his brother Atlas. They look very different however because Prometheus is covered in shining gold leaf. Since the statue is so large, it takes nearly a pound of gold leaf to cover it.
The gold leafing has been restored multiple times since the statue originally debuted in the 1930s. Fritz Klueber, a German craftsman and specialist in gold leafing who worked on the restoration of the statue in 1974 told The New York Times that “the statue of Prometheus is rather unique because gold leafing on bronze is rare.”