interestingasfuck

so the answer is "he was a dumbass who had not seen or known about the multiple historical examples of green copper roofs enough to know that that would eventually happen to the statue and thought the tarnishing would just magically stop on its own before then".

Great, that's all you had to say, would've been nice to have some sources too (generally, it falls on the person making the claim to provide sources ;3) but I can at least find some reference (after some google excavation, digging through bullshit) to back up your claim about him later wanting it covered in gold for reflectivity. And since I have no interest in reading another comment from you, I'll call that good enough. Bye now.