The monument of Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik), "Earth moving, Sun stopping" astronomer.
Made by the Danish sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen, with compass and armillary sphere, stands in front of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
The statue itself was cast in 1822 and erected in downtown Warsaw in 1830.
It has seen its fair share of adventure. During WWII the Nazis placed a bronze plaque insinuating that the great man was a German, not Pole.
In 1942, a boy scout called Alek Dawidowski, ducked the guards and removed the plaque.
Boiling with fury, the Nazis removed the statue, hid it in Silesia region and dynamited a few other surrounding monuments for good measure.
The statue was recovered after the war and brought back to its place in Warsaw in 1949.