Little Prince, Sculpture in the Rose Quarter, Portland, US

Little Prince is a 1995 copper and steel sculpture by Ilan Averbuch: a crown lying on its side, partially buried at Northeast Multnomah Street and North Interstate Avenue in Portland's Rose Quarter, south of the Moda Center. It measures 15 by 17 by 12 feet and belongs to the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection.

The sculpture was installed in 1995 at Northeast Multnomah Street and North Interstate Avenue, south of the Moda Center, funded by Portland's Percent for Art program. Artist Ilan Averbuch drew on the first chapter of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1943 novella The Little Prince, where a drawing of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant is mistaken for a hat. It belongs to the City of Portland and Multnomah County Public Art Collection, administered by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

The title refers to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 1943 novella, whose first chapter describes a drawing of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant that adults mistake for a hat. Averbuch built the crown as an open-ended image, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council invites each passerby to decide whether it is a prize awaiting a claimant or a sign of triumph to come.

The crown sits at the intersection of Northeast Multnomah Street and North Interstate Avenue, south of the Moda Center in the Rose Quarter, on the MAX light rail and streetcar lines. It is partially buried and unfenced, so it can be walked around at any hour. Look for the crown's open side and the ground line where the metal meets the pavement.

The crown is partially buried, so only part of its 15-by-17-foot frame shows above ground. Ilan Averbuch drew on the first chapter of The Little Prince, where a drawing of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant is mistaken for a hat. The sculpture's title points to that misunderstanding rather than to the character himself.