Caretaker Culture Minister Surakiart Sathirathai inspects the progress of renovation work on the Brahma statue that was damaged by a mentally ill man last month. A new metal figure is currently being built.

He was speaking after visiting the Fine Arts Department to check on the progress in the restoration of the statue, which was smashed last month by a man with a history of mental illness.

Surakiart, who heads a committee overseeing the statue's restoration, said the original had been completely repaired and only the gilding and decoration remained to be done.

Craftsmen at the Fine Arts Department had made a beeswax sculpture of the new statue, he said. The next step will be to create a mould, cast the statue and then cover it in gold leaf.

"The work on both statues will completed by the end of next month," Surakiart said.

The old statue will be returned to the Erawan shrine in Bangkok while the new one will be placed in the National Museum with celebrations that His Majesty the King will be invited to preside over, he said.

Nopparat Boonmee, a craftsman at the Fine Art Department who worked on the old statue, said he followed religious precepts carefully while restoring it to ensure good luck.