The Great Sphinx at Giza was already noseless by 1737, as F. L. Norden’s drawings show, and the chisel scars on the limestone face indicate targeted iconoclasm rather than cannon fire. What other persistent gallery myths do you find yourself correcting, and do you keep a go-to primary source citation when you do?
I’m forever undoing ‘ancient statues were meant to be white’ — Pliny, Natural History 35.133, notes Nicias adding color to Praxiteles’ marbles, and I pair that with the Met’s polychromy overview: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/polg/hd_polg.htm (think ancient Marvel, not grayscale). Caveat: finishes varied by period and context, so I flag exceptions. Do you keep a go-to image you show skeptics for the Sphinx nose — maybe Norden’s 1737 plate?
Keep having to untangle “the British stole the Rosetta Stone” — it passed to Britain under the 1801 Capitulation of Alexandria, Art… 16, after the French surrender. Like your 1737 Norden point, the document beats the legend; I keep this handy: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA24.