The sculpture surmounts one of two large granite columns in the Square, thought to have been erected between 1172 and 1177 during the reign of Doge Sebastiano Ziani[1] or about 1268,[2] bearing ancient symbols of the two patron saints of Venice.

The Lion sculpture has had a very long and obscure history, probably starting its existence as a funerary statue called zhènmùshòu (镇墓兽 in Simplified Chinese, literally “tomb guardian”) in medieval China, during the reign of the Tang Dynasty.

More recent studies, however, suggest that the statue likely comes from the regions near the lower course of the Yangtze River, in eastern China, and was probably cast sometime in the period from the 7th to the early 10th century CE, during the reign of the Tang Dynasty.

After being restored by French sculptors, possibly Edme Gaulle or Jean Guillaume Moitte, the Lion was mounted on a plinth in the new Fontaine des Invalides.

Repatriated to Venice, the fragments of the Lion were stored at the Arsenal before it was repaired by Bartolomeo Ferrari and returned to its column, officially, on 13 April 1816.

This finding was confirmed by careful analyses of lead isotopes, which leave in the bronze unmistakable traces of the original mines from which the copper was extracted.

The title card with the broken statue serves as introduction to "Due Buffoni" (Two Buffoons), a black and white mock-Italian movie showing O'Brien and Schlansky's adventures in Italy while a depressed Italian narrator describes how awful the mock-film and its two subjects are.