The Real Mystery of Mass Effect 2

... and just how DID Hock get Lady Liberty's head?

Don't you mean the real mystery of Mass Effect 2?


You get a codex article that explains part of it:

'The Statue of Liberty was the target of several terrorist attacks over its 210-year lifetime, but in 2096, a motley group called Freedoms First finally brought the statue down. Protesting the induction of Canada and Mexico into the United North American States, the New York chapter of Freedoms First wanted a symbol that they would secede from this new union if necessary.

In the early morning hours of November 1st, they smuggled small arms and 15.5 tons of high explosive onto Liberty Island. Shooting or capturing guards, they planted explosives under the pedestal and detonated them at 7:37 a.m.. The statue crashed to the ground in pieces, unexpectedly killing four of the Freedoms First terrorists. The remaining team members were apprehended after long manhunts, but the damage was done. The outrage at the secessionists kindled the fires of the Second American Civil War.

On November 4th, President Kaitlin Cheung signed an executive order to rebuild the statue. Approximately one-tenth of the steel beams and copper plating from the destroyed statue was recovered and used in creating the new one. The original's head was put on display in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.. It remained there for two years until the Battle of Washington. During heavy shelling by secessionist forces, the head disappeared.

A new statue was completed in 2101, and the fate of the original pieces was left for speculation and pulp novels. Interest flared up briefly in 2159 when photos surfaced of the head in the cargo hold of a star freighter, but by that time human media were far more concerned with the future. In the face of humanity spreading out among thousands of new planets, a statue titled "Liberty Enlightening the World" seemed small and quaint by comparison.'

That tells me how Lady Liberty lost her head... but how did HOCK specifically wind up with it in his vault?  Did he own that freighter?  Did it pass through the hands of other "collectors" first?  There's still a lot of mystery there to speculate about.

I think they were making a commentary about censorship in the process.  They could have just as easily selected any number of other great historic sculptures and foregone the need for any alterations completely.

However, there is some actual history here:

www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/davids-fig-leaf/

... combined with a more recent debate about how to go about restoring ancient works of art that were defaced in more permanent ways due to such things:

www.nytimes.com/1987/04/19/arts/of-fig-leaves-art-and-other-disputes-italy-the-great-fig-leaf-debate.html

As I said, I think there is a good possibility that they were making such a tongue-in-cheek point.  Mass Effect is riddled with different sorts of "subtle" commentary about all sorts of things... politics, war, peace, religion, family life, poverty, materialism... and much lighter topics like trends in video gaming (top floor of the Citadel in ME2), ads that target you personally (Shepard, you've recently been dead...) and women's fashion (remember the tin-foil mini-skirt?).

www.randomhistory.com/2009/05/25_miniskirt.html