The reasoning that "it has been there for decades and hasn't turned before" doesn't really hold water for me. Anyone who has owned a home know buildings shift and settle all the time as well as mounts, shelves, and everything else losing a bit of structural integrity over time. It only takes a screw or two to get a wee bit loose. At least that is my simpleton view of it.
It's a stone statue over a glass shelf, so the friction coefficient is probably low and it's possible that the vibrations make it turn around.
Perhaps before the shelf was inclined a few millimeters to the other side, so it didn't turn.
Perhaps it was formerly in a wood shelf, with more irregularities and a bigger friction coefficient.
Perhaps there was no camera, so when someone found that it was looking to the other side, they just assumed than someone else had moved it.