Satoshi Statue Stolen: Bitcoin Tribute Vanishes from Swiss Park

The statue, unveiled on October 25, 2024, during Lugano’s Plan B Forum, was a collaboration between the City of Lugano, the Plan B network, and Tether, designed by Italian artist and Bitcoin activist Valentina Picozzi. Constructed over 21 months, 18 in conceptual design and 3 in fabrication, the sculpture was made of 304 stainless steel and corten blocks, and intentionally created so that it disappeared when viewed from the front or back, while visible as a figure working on a laptop from the side. It symbolized Nakamoto’s anonymity and the motto “we are all Satoshi.”

On the morning of August 3, 2025, residents discovered that only the empty base remained in Parco Ciani. The layered stripes of steel that once formed the figure were gone. The theft appears to have happened late on August 2, amid the Swiss National Day festivities, when nearby cafés were busy, a lull the thieves may have exploited.

An X user @Grittoshi documented that the statue was intact on the evening of August 1, but missing by morning. He posted that a chunk of the statue’s metal name-plate remained affixed to its base, bearing the names “Satoshi Nakamoto” and “Valentina Picozzi.” He suggested the statue was likely thrown into the nearby lake: “There are cameras everywhere in the city so I assume, they just threw it inside the lake beside” the park.

In response, Satoshigallery, the artistic initiative led by Picozzi, posted on X: “We are offering 0.1 BTC to whoever will help us recover the Statue of Satoshi Nakamoto that was stolen yesterday in Lugano.” They added, “You can steal our symbol but you will never be able to steal our souls.”

At its unveiling, the statue was celebrated as a powerful visual metaphor for Nakamoto’s legacy and Lugano’s embrace of cryptocurrency. Situated in front of Villa Ciani, part of Plan B Forum’s annual efforts to position Lugano as a leading Bitcoin hub, the sculpture was emblematic of the city’s progressive stance: accepting BTC, USDT, and its own LVGA stablecoin as legal tender and allowing payment of taxes in crypto since March 2022.

Following the theft, authorities in Lugano launched an investigation, and community members began examining possible lake disposal of the statue. The sculpture was later found broken in Lake Lugano and recovered by municipal workers.