This bust of Napoleon on a pedestal was inaugurated on 5 May 2011, for the 190th anniversary of the Emperor's death, on the Square of the Insurgents of Warszawa in the presence of, among others, the French ambassador to Poland, Mr François Barry Delongchamps, the Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the deputy mayor of Warszawa, Mr Jacek Wojciechowski, the president of the Polish section of the Mutual Aid Society of the Members of the Legion of Honour, Mr Jean Caillot, as well as soldiers of the 2nd French Hussar Regiment.
The bust stands on the exact site of the former statue in his likeness (created by the sculptor Jan Antoni Biernacki), unveiled on the centenary of his death, on 5 May 1921 in the presence of Marshal Piłsudski, and demolished only a few months after its erection.
The monument, 4.5 metres high, consists of the bust of the Emperor, supported by two eagles with outspread wings, standing on a pedestal of light granite on which is affixed a large "N" beneath a crown, with the following inscriptions below in Polish, in capital letters: "To the great leader" and then "Higher Military School, 4. V. 1923". On the plaque at the foot of the pedestal, one can read in Polish: "Monument restored on 5 May 2011 at the place where the first monument to Emperor Napoleon I was erected in Warszawa, on 5 May 1921". The project, initiated by the Polish section of the Mutual Aid Society of the Members of the Legion of Honour, was financed by French and Polish companies, institutions and private individuals.
This bust of Napoleon, created by the sculptors Pavel Pietrusiński and Marek Żebrowski, is not a replica of the 1921 statue, but of that by the sculptor Michał Kamieński. The latter had been unveiled in the presence of Marshal Ferdinand Foch, on 4 May 1923 at the corner of Koszykowa Street, in front of the Higher Military School of Warszawa (today the Warszawa University of Technology). Destroyed during the Second World War, only its bust was preserved and is today exhibited in the courtyard of the Museum of the Polish Army.