The Academy of Sciences initiated funding for a statue honoring Berzelius, which was to stand in the middle of the park. Artist Carl Gustaf Qvarnström (1810-1867) was commissioned to do the work. He went to Munich to model the statue and had Ferdinand von Miller cast it in bronze. It became the first public statue of a "commoner" to be produced in full figure. As the new park installations were still considered too fragile to receive a large crowd, the statue was secretly inaugurated in the middle of the night following the opening ceremony.