The monument of Copernicus 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 Nazi's 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 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. The plaque at the centre of the storm can be viewed in Warsaw's History Museum.

Besides the Copernicus statue in Warsaw, there exist two other monuments of the famous astronomer, identical because cast in the same mould: one in Montreal and the other in Chicago.

Montreal, Rue Saint-Jacques, Borough Ville-Marie (Downtown) http://www.imtl.org/montreal/image.php?id=2844
Chicago, IL - Museum Campus, Solidarity (Achsah Bond) Dr. http://chicago-outdoor-sculptures.blogspot.com/2007/09/statues-on-solidarity-drive.html