The work by Bertel Thorvaldsen, made in 1832, was located in Gomel from 1842 to 1922. The monument had a turbulent and long history. The order for the sculpture was placed as early as 1818, but work on it did not begin until 1826. The first model did not gain the approval of the Polish public, becoming the subject of numerous discussions. When the statue was ready, in 1834 the Russian authorities withdrew their permission to place it in front of the Namiestnikowski Palace. Tsar Nicholas I then ordered the monument to be moved to Modlin, which happened in 1836 after it was taken apart. In 1840, the statue was reassembled and the Tsar gave it to Ivan Paskevich, which meant it ended up in his residence in Gomel.

Repeated attempts were made to recover the statue from Gomel (in 1861, 1905 and 1917), but without success. It was only in 1922, under the terms of the Treaty of Riga, that the sculpture returned to Poland and in 1923 it stood on Saski Square in Warsaw. Unfortunately, in 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, it was destroyed by the German army.

Between 1948 and 1951, a new cast of the statue was made, based on the model stored in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. In 1952, it was unveiled in front of the Old Orangery in the Royal Baths Park, and in 1965 it was moved to the courtyard of the Palace of the Council of Ministers, where it remains to this day.