The statue was sculpted by Italian artist Carlo Marochetti and erected in 1844. However, it came to prominence in the 1980s when the humourous Glaswegians started putting a cone on the statue's head. For four decades, the statue has almost always been decorated with a traffic cone, which has over the years become an unofficial symbol of the city. Despite many attempts by Glasgow City Council to remove the traffic cones from the Category-A listed statue, they always seem to find a way back on top.

 

More recently, they have been used for marketing and decorative purposes. In the summer of 2012, it was painted gold to honour the Scottish athletes who had won gold at the London Olympics Games.