A royal facelift

Look at the king's smooth, wrinkle free face .. even the stubble is gone. 

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  Gustavus Adolphus has been given a $300,000 much-needed facelift. Photo: Eva Ekeblad Bengt Erland Fogelberg. The king (1594-1632) is credited as the founder of the Swedish nation as a Great Power (Swedish: Stormaktstiden). He led Sweden to military supremacy during the Thirty Years War, helping to determine the political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe.

• A royal facelift
  Look at the king's smooth, wrinkle free face .. even the stubble is gone. Of course, we're talking about King Gustav II Adolf (or Gustavus Adolphus). After 160 years in fog and pollution, wind and rain, the statue of the 17th century king in central Göteborg needed to get some of its luster back. On Thursday, the statue was uncovered after nearly nine months of renovation. “We’re very pleased. The facial features and all details are much more clear now that all dirt has been removed,” says project leader Oskar Hägg at Park- och naturförvaltningen. Facelifts are rarely cheap and this one was no exception, it cost around 2 million SEK ($300,000), and has meant cleaning, polishing, and even the use of a scalpel to scrape off many of the barnacle-like plants that have clung to the statue. “Now the statue has also been treated so that he is good for at least another 100 years,” says Hägg.