Who's Mugging for Museum Space When You've Got a Giant Geologist Looming Large

In Milan's charming Parco Sempione, a colossal statue of a Lessini geologist, none other than Antonio Stoppani, proudly stands. But here's the peculiar part - though a subscription was started for his marble bust to reside within the museum just a few months after his 1891 passing, the monument wasn't unveiled until 1898. Funded by a subscription, contributing generously from the royal family and numerous priests, particularly from the Lecchese region, Stoppani's hometown, the statue represents 'Stoppani the teacher, in the storied times in which he pondered the Corso di geologia, attired in the robes of a professorial priest', as Taramelli had put it.

Measuring 3.5 meters in height, the statue stands solidly on a 3.95-meter-tall pink granite pedestal from Baveno, a detail Stoppani himself outlined in his Corso di Geologia. The inscription carved upon the pedestal reads simple and unmistakable: 'ANTONIO STOPPANI MDCCCXCVIII.'

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons