The eight-foot marble likeness -- unveiled only in May and destined eventually to grace the House of Commons -- was left headless after the man walked into the gallery and battered it with a steel scaffolding pole.

"A man...has knocked off the head of the statue of Margaret Thatcher," a City of London police spokeswoman told Reuters.

Police charged 37-year-old Paul Kelleher from west London and he will appear in a London court on Thursday.

The Conservative "Iron Lady," who polarized British politics with a radical, right-wing program in the 1980s, has praised the work by sculptor Neil Simmons as "marvelous" and said she was pleased to see it included her trademark -- a good-sized handbag. Her spokesman said the 76-year-old former premier, who has been told to cut back on public appearances for the sake of her health, would not comment on the attack.

A spokesman for the Guildhall Art Gallery said the headless statue was swiftly removed from view. A decision on its future would be made after Simmons had taken a look at it. The two-ton statue was intended for the House of Commons but parliamentary rules dictate that it cannot join those of other former leaders until five years after her death.

Labour's Tony Banks, a firebrand socialist who heads parliament's works of arts committee, said that although the statue was a controversial commission, acts of vandalism against works of art could never be tolerated.

City of London Lord Mayor Michael Oliver said: "Whatever one's views of Baroness Thatcher's politics, she is a unique and important part of the recent history of our country."