Thorfinn Karlsefni (sculpture)
Thorfinn Karlsefni is a bronze statue of Norse explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni, created by Icelandic sculptor Einar Jónsson. The first casting was located in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, United States, before being toppled by vandals in 2018. A second casting of the statue is in Reykjavík, Iceland, and the original plaster model is located in the Einar Jónsson Museum. History
The artwork was commissioned by Joseph Bunford Samuel through a bequest that his wife, Ellen Phillips Samuel, made to the Fairmount Park Art Association, specifying that the funds were to be used to create a series of sculptures "emblematic of the history of America." The statue was installed along Philadelphia's Kelly Drive, near Turtle Rock Light, and unveiled on November 20, 1920. The artwork was one of 51 sculptures included in the Association for Public Art's Museum Without Walls: AUDIO™ interpretive audio program for Philadelphia's outdoor sculpture. Protests and vandalism
By the 21st century, the statue had become a common rallying location for local white supremacy groups. In time, these rallies led to counter protests and vandalism of the statue. In the early morning hours of October 2, 2018, police were called to the statue's location and found it had been toppled from its stone base, which broke the head from the body, after which it was dragged into the nearby Schuylkill River. During recovery, a crane was needed to remove the statue, which weighs several thousand pounds, from the river. As of 2020, the statue was being conserved, but the City of Philadelphia had no timeline for its reinstallation and was taking the appropriation of the statue by hate groups into consideration as it made plans for the future. Inscriptions

The inscriptions formerly read:

See also
 List of public art in Philadelphia

References

Outdoor sculptures in Philadelphia
1920 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in Pennsylvania
East Fairmount Park
Fairmount, Philadelphia
Statues in Pennsylvania
Sculptures of men in Pennsylvania
1920 establishments in Pennsylvania
Sculptures in Iceland
Vandalized works of art in Pennsylvania