The statue was cast in 1900 thanks to the efforts of newly formed Tadeusz Kościuszko Society, soon after Marconi's death. The Austrian government during the time of imperial partitions of Poland refused to issue the permit for its placement. It was erected no less than twenty years later in 1920-24 once the Polish state reestablished its independence following World War I. The statue was destroyed by the Germans in 1940 during the Nazi German occupation of Poland. Its current replica, erected in 1960, is a gift to the City of Kraków from the people of Dresden, Germany. Its duplicate was also erected in Detroit, Michigan in 1978, as a gift from the people of Kraków, in celebration of the United States Bicentennial.