The giant red horned figure, which is approximately nine foot tall, appeared overnight on Tuesday outside the Clark Drive SkyTrain station, on a vacant pedestal previously occupied by a statue of Christopher Columbus.

The city council took down the well-endowed figure later the same day, but no groups have come forward to claim responsibility – and detectives have so far been unable to find its source.

However, word of the statue had already spread by the time it was removed, and so far nearly 2000 people have signed a petition calling for the “Giant Beelzebub-With-a-Boner” statue to be put back in place “as a piece of public art (to) serve as a reminder that art is in the eye of the beholder”.

The Hot Art Wet City gallery in the city has also offered to host the statue, tweeting to the council: “If you have the devil with a boner statue, I’m happy to display it here at our gallery for Sept/October. Maybe forever.”