Otakar Švec

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Otakar Švec (November 23, 1892 - April 4, 1955) was a Czech sculptor best known for his colossal granite Monument to Stalin in Prague, Czech Republic.

Pupil of Josef Václav Myslbek and Jan Štursa, in 1924 Švec had produced the important Futurist sculpture Sunbeam Motorcycle (now in the National Gallery, Prague) and at least three major public monuments to Tomáš Masaryk, Jan Hus, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The first two were destroyed by the Germans during World War II, and the other by the Soviet occupation.

Švec entered the competition for the Stalin Monument assuming that was politically fixed, and hoping only for second prize. He won and the political pressures of the job destroyed him. Unveiled on May Day, 1955, Švec had killed himself by kitchen gas three weeks earlier, following the example of his wife. This world's largest representation of Stalin, dominating the city, stood for only seven years before the political climate changed. It was brought down in October 1962 with 800 kilograms of dynamite.