According to the art group Satoshigallery responsible for installing the statue, the iconic 'disappeared' statue of Bitcoin (BTC) creator Satoshi Nakamoto, which was stolen on Saturday, has been recovered.
Municipal workers in Lugano, Switzerland, discovered after recovering the statue that it had been removed from its base located at the lakeside park Parco Ciani and discarded in Lake Lugano.
When the statue was found, it was in ruins, indicating that this was an act of vandalism rather than theft for monetary gain. The statue was only welded to the base at two points on the feet, with the feet remaining on the base.
Satoshigallery offered a reward of 0.1 BTC for the recovery of the statue, worth over $11,000, but Cointelegraph was unable to obtain further comments as no response was received by the time of publication.
The statue was created by Italian artist and Bitcoin supporter Valentina Picozzi and was unveiled in October 2024, becoming a flagship symbol of the Bitcoin community. The artist stated that the planning and construction of the project took 21 months.
The Bitcoin community expressed outrage over the destruction of the statue.
The Bitcoin community expressed outrage and defiance over the theft and destruction of the statue, which has become a symbol of the Bitcoin movement and the mysterious founder of digital currency.
Gabor Gurbacs, founder and CEO of blockchain rewards and tokenization platform Pointsville, stated in an X post: 'This is a very tasteless and stupid act. I hope the perpetrators are found.'
Bitcoin supporter Gritto speculated that drunken party enthusiasts celebrating Swiss National Day (Swiss National Day) may be responsible.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino simply responded with a heart emoji on social media after learning that the statue had been recovered.
Satoshigallery emphasized: 'You can steal our symbols, but you can never steal our soul,' and reiterated its commitment to place similar statues in 21 locations around the world.
