There were thirteen individuals and teams to choose from. As the proposals were equally good, the evaluation committee chose three finalists who then had to create a miniaturized plaster model. “What we liked about the winning sculpture was the message that radiates from the model. Its authors managed to capture and develop the unique nature and power of the moment of the original statue by Albín Polášek,” said a member of the evaluation committee Paul W. Beckmann. Other members of the committee were Prague 1 representatives, the City representatives, sculptors Ivan Kalvoda and Milan Vácha and architect Mikuláš Hulec.
The winning sculptors will be working on the statue for eighteen months. When finished, the sculpture will be placed in the central part of the park in front of the new Main Railway Station departure hall. However, the monument will not be unveiled until the railway station has been renovated.
The original monument to Woodrow Wilson, the President of the USA from 1913 until 1921, was erected in 1928 in Vrchlického Sady opposite the Main Raiway Station. Its creator was sculptor Albín Polášek and it stood in place of today’s new railway entrance hall. In January 2008 the original plaster cast of the head and shoulders was found in the National Gallery deposit. With this, experts from the Department of Cybernetics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, the Czech Technical University in Prague created a digital model.
President Wilson is well-known for his success in internal politics and for a programme that he presented to Congress in January 1918. In the programme he called for open diplomacy, free trade, worldwide disarmament, the right of nations for self-determination and most of all for the establishment of the League of Nations. His programme also spoke in favour of autonomy of the nations of the Habsburg Monarchy.