Il Porcellino

The official "Trip Advisor" blurb reads: This Italian statue of a boar stands outside the Sydney Hospital and is a lovely statue in its own right. A sign below it states that if you make a donation and rub the boar's nose then you will be endowed with good fortune. Many people must have done this because the animal's nose has been rubbed until it's now shiny. A lovely piece of street furniture.

Il Porcellino, meaning ‘the little pig’, is an exact replica of an original by Pietro Tacca which has stood in Florence, Italy, since circa 1633, and is given the local Florentine nickname il porcellino.

The monument in Florence is believed to bring good luck if visitors put a coin into the boar’s gaping jaws, with the intent to let it fall through the underlying grating, and they rub the boar’s snout to ensure a return to Florence. Money collected from the monument was used to fund a hospital in Florence. In Sydney, as in Florence, donations go to assist the work of the hospital. The sculpture was a gift to the city of Sydney from Marchesa Fiaschi Torrigiani in 1968.