Trouble with the pedestal
In 1996, the statue was removed from its place because it had suddenly fallen forward. This was certainly not the first time that this had happened. The statue had been removed from its place for a while three times. According to notes by Jacob Lois, the statue was taken to the city carpentry house for repairs on 18 April 1674 "as if it wanted to fall down from above." It took some time before the problem was fixed, because elsewhere we read that Erasmus "was put back on the Grote Markt" on 22 April 1677. Another reason could be that the magistrate had to protect the statue from rebellious people. He had it removed from its pedestal and stored it in a warehouse for a while, until peace had returned. There is a legend that the city council of Basel tried to buy the statue. This was prevented by a few votes. When the "copper Erasmus" returned in 1677, new inscriptions were added to the pedestal, as they can still be read today. The text on the pedestal was adjusted once more. This change concerns Erasmus' year of birth. Nowadays, it is generally assumed that the year 1466 is correct, but from 1557 onwards, 1467 was written on the pedestal of the statue on the Grote Markt. It was not until 1950 that 1469 became the dominant possibility. The major international commemorations of Erasmus' birth were planned for 1969. In Rotterdam, it was decided in 1964 to change the year on the pedestal to 1469. This was corrected again in 1984, because 1467 seemed to be generally accepted by then.