The Statue of the Nile God is an Ancient Roman marble statue dating from the 2nd to 3rd century AD . Nilo with a cornucopia , symbol of abundance and lying on a now mutilated sphinx. The statue was probably erected by Alexandrian merchants . It was recovered , headless, in 1476, and was nicknamed "Corpo di Napoli" . It was placed upon a pedestal in 1657, and later that century a bearded head was sculpted . In recent decades , the statue was again decapitated by robbers , and later recovered .