[yholio]

To elaborate on this, the white marble statues decorating the Parthenon and Acropolis are believed to have been painted very bright colors in their day. Not a single one of those dazzling pigments survived exposed to the elements after a mere 2500 years.

[mathieuh]

I think it's past belief at this point, archaeologists have found traces of pigment on the statues.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/12/22/ancient-statues-in...

Know nothing about this source but I googled and couldn't find a better one, I'm sure I've read about before though.

[dan-robertson]

The white marble statues were usually copies of more highly regarded bronze statues. But you can’t melt the marble down to make weapons so those statues survived